Latest / Elon Musk Podcast / Why are people firebombing Teslas?

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Why are people firebombing Teslas? · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:02
  Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Elon Musk
• 0:04
  Podcast. This is a show where we discuss
• 0:07
  the critical crossroads, The Shape, SpaceX, Tesla X, The
• 0:11
  Boring Company, and Neurolink. And I'm your host, Will Walden.
• 0:15
  If you want uninterrupted episodes of the Elon Musk
• 0:19
  Podcast, please go to clubelon.supercast.com to find
• 0:24
  out how. There's a link in the show,
• 0:26
  notes. Tesla, once the darling of eco
• 0:31
  conscious tech enthusiasts, now finds itself at the center of a
• 0:35
  national brawl. And not a metaphorical kind.
• 0:38
  Showrooms have been torched. Vehicles have been keyed, spray
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  painted, even shot at. Molotov cocktails, arrests and
• 0:45
  armed police patrols now mingle with showroom models and
• 0:48
  promotional banners. The damage is real, the mode is
• 0:51
  murky, and the questions only pile up.
• 0:54
  Is this about Elon Musk's politics?
• 0:57
  Is Tesla being punished for a CE OS involvement in government
• 1:00
  cost cutting? Or is this simply what happens
• 1:02
  when a high profile billionaire takes signs in America's endless
• 1:06
  culture war? Now, whatever the truth is, one
• 1:08
  thing's clear. Tesla's going through something
• 1:12
  and it's not just another bad quarter.
• 1:15
  Eliana Musk hasn't been shy about why he thinks this is
• 1:18
  happening. In his telling, Tesla is under
• 1:21
  assault because of his role in the Trump administration's
• 1:24
  Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE,
• 1:27
  and it tesks itself with rooting out wasteful federal spending.
• 1:31
  And Musk has taken the job seriously.
• 1:33
  You know, apparently Elon is taking it way too seriously now,
• 1:38
  Musk said on Fox News. They basically want to kill me
• 1:42
  because I'm stopping their fraud, and they want to hurt
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  Tesla because we're stopping the terrible waste and corruption in
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  the government. Now that's a bold accusation
• 1:52
  without evidence, but one that fits neatly into the narrative
• 1:56
  that Musk has been building that his political involvement has
• 1:59
  made him a target and Tesla is now collateral damage to fight
• 2:04
  back. Tesla is rolling out A2 pronged
• 2:06
  response. First, the company has beefed up
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  security at dealerships, including visible police
• 2:10
  presence at some locations, and one such example is the Las
• 2:15
  Vegas showroom on Sahara Blvd. now guarded by officers from the
• 2:19
  Las Vegas Metro Police Department.
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  Second, Tesla is fully deploying its Sentry Mode technology
• 2:26
  across all vehicles system that uses onboard cameras to monitor
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  and record suspicious activity, effectively turning every part
• 2:36
  Tesla into its own surveillance outpost.
• 2:40
  And the text is already paying off.
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  On March 20th, Musk posted footage captured by a Tesla
• 2:46
  Sentry Mode showing a man carving a swastika into the
• 2:49
  paint of one of his vehicles. That man was later arrested and
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  if convicted, could face up to 18 months in prison.
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  Musk responded in characteristically blunt
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  fashion. Not smart to attack Tesla's
• 3:01
  subtlety as always, not his strong suit.
• 3:05
  The social media has turned into a war zone on its own with users
• 3:08
  from X and rival platforms like Blue Sky trading accusations and
• 3:13
  conspiracy theories. Tesla Radia, Tesla Focus news
• 3:16
  outlet summed it up bluntly. They said it is literal insanity
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  that we have cops guarding Tesla dealers because people can't
• 3:25
  have a different opinion in peace now.
• 3:28
  What was once a company showroom is now a symbol in a larger
• 3:33
  political fight, complete with law enforcement arrests and
• 3:37
  ideological clashes. Some of the fury appears to stem
• 3:40
  from the so-called Tesla Takedown movement.
• 3:43
  Originally organized on Blue Sky, the campaign calls on Tesla
• 3:47
  owners to sell their vehicles and ditch the company's stock in
• 3:51
  protests of Musk's political affiliations, not just hashtags
• 3:55
  and slogans. Now, demonstrators have shown up
• 3:57
  outside Tesla stores, coordinating protests worldwide,
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  and even launched a website that maps protest locations.
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  For Tesla owners caught in the middle, it's becoming an
• 4:07
  uncomfortable situation. Not only are they worried about
• 4:10
  physical damage to their vehicles, but some are also
• 4:13
  facing a strange kind of social backlash.
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  One sticker gaining popularity among Tesla drivers read.
• 4:19
  I bought this before we knew Elon was crazy.
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  It's a meme, but it speaks to something real, a sense of kind
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  of a buyer's remorse rooted not in product quality but in
• 4:30
  association with Elon Musk. Now there are financial
• 4:33
  ramifications, too. Tesla shares have already slid
• 4:36
  about 45% this year. Yet despite the public chaos,
• 4:41
  Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Andres Shepard recently upgraded
• 4:45
  Tesla's stock after visiting the company's Cortex EI centers and
• 4:49
  its Gigafactory in Texas. Shepherd saw material catalysts
• 4:53
  on the horizon, namely the gnawing anticipated robo taxi
• 4:56
  roll out scheduled for June in Austin.
• 4:59
  If the technology lives up to the billing, it could jolt the
• 5:03
  stock back up. But in the meantime, these
• 5:06
  glimmers of future success are being overshadowed by a wave of
• 5:09
  political blowback and security headaches.
• 5:12
  From a legal standpoint, the response is escalating fast.
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  President Trump has publicly declared he might classify the
• 5:18
  dealership attacks as acts of domestic terrorism, he said.
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  They're bad guys. They're the same guys who screw
• 5:25
  around with our schools and universities.
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  We're going to catch you and you're going to go through hell.
• 5:32
  How colorful, as always. But the message is clear.
• 5:34
  The administration plans to treat these incidents not just
• 5:37
  as vandalism but as threats to national security.
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  And the Justice Department followed soon on March 19th.
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  That formally designated the vandalism spree as nothing short
• 5:48
  of domestic terrorism. That designation opens the door
• 5:52
  for more aggressive prosecutions and harsher penalties, including
• 5:56
  the use of anti terrorism statutes.
• 5:59
  Now, for suspects, that means the possibility of longer
• 6:01
  sentences, higher bail and less leniency and plea deals.
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  And police departments from across multiple states have
• 6:09
  already made arrests. In Colorado, one woman faces
• 6:12
  several charges, including use of explosives during a felony
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  after allegedly targeting a Tesla facility.
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  These aren't misdemeanor slaps on the wrist, though.
• 6:22
  This has real consequences. And it suggests that local law
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  enforcement is fully aligned with the federal crackdown.
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  And while Tesla tries to secure its real estate, must also
• 6:33
  confront an intangible but no less dangerous threat.
• 6:37
  Reputational fallout. For many, driving a Tesla now
• 6:40
  feels like a political statement, one they never signed
• 6:43
  up for. This isn't just brand
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  polarization, it's literal danger for customers.
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  Some owners are now hiding their cars and garages or removing
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  Tesla logos altogether, trying to avoid becoming the next
• 6:56
  target. And the company's public image
• 6:59
  is further complicated by Musk's personal remarks during the same
• 7:03
  Fox News appearance, he said. I always thought that the left,
• 7:07
  you know, Democrats were supposed to be the party of
• 7:09
  empathy, the party of caring. And yet the burning down cars,
• 7:12
  the firebombing dealerships, the firing bullets at a dealerships,
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  the smashing up Teslas, Now it's a clear attempt to draw a Direct
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  Line between political affiliation and criminal
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  activity, which is a tactic that risks alienating potential
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  customers as much as it rallies his base.
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  And even inside the protest movement as concerned about the
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  optics, organizers who claim their opposition is peaceful now
• 7:38
  face the challenge of disassociating from criminal
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  behaviors. The Tesla takedown may have
• 7:43
  started as a symbolic protest, but the violence threatens to
• 7:47
  hijack its message. Once firebombs are involved, the
• 7:51
  lines between activism and extremism are blurred, and that
• 7:55
  has legal, moral and strategic consequences.
• 7:58
  Some analysts think the situation could force Tesla to
• 8:01
  change how it does business. Beyond more cameras and more
• 8:04
  police, the company may have to invest in entirely new systems.
• 8:08
  Maybe drone patrols, panic alert buttons, hardened dealership
• 8:13
  designs, or even remote determines like noise or light
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  cannons. Those are all absurd.
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  But you know, the times where they've been are pretty absurd.
• 8:23
  People are firebombing. Test the showrooms.
• 8:27
  It's an evolution of a car company, but it's also the
• 8:30
  evolution of a movement against Elon Musk.
• 8:34
  Tesla's internal staff is also at risk.
• 8:37
  Showing room employees, mechanics and service
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  technicians are now kind of unofficial security guards,
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  often without training. Company may need to start
• 8:47
  offering hazard pay, insurance coverage, or even trauma
• 8:50
  counseling. Not exactly standard perks in
• 8:53
  the car business. And every dollar spent
• 8:56
  protecting infrastructure was the dollar not spent on
• 8:58
  manufacturing. And the time they spend on these
• 9:01
  issues is not spend on making better vehicles, R&D,
• 9:06
  manufacturing, or market expansion.
• 9:09
  Now at the root of all this remains Musk's rolling Doge role
• 9:12
  that draws enemies reeled or perceived.
• 9:15
  Since January, Doge has investigated programs like
• 9:19
  Social Security for waste and fraud must consists the
• 9:23
  backlashes orchestrated by people who benefit from the
• 9:25
  so-called fraudulent spending. But no proof has been provided
• 9:29
  by Yulan. It's an allegation that fits his
• 9:33
  political rhetoric, but it doesn't replace the need for
• 9:35
  evidence. What's not in dispute is the
• 9:38
  risk faced by ordinary people, people working at Tesla, the
• 9:42
  people driving Tesla cars. Whether you're a Tesla
• 9:45
  enthusiast, an investor, or just someone who happened to buy a
• 9:48
  Tesla way back in 2021 because of a good lease deal, you're now
• 9:53
  part of something bigger. Not by choice, though, and not
• 9:57
  with much warning. But the minute your vehicle
• 10:00
  became a symbol, your garage became a potential battleground.
• 10:04
  Now, Tesla's still a business, and it needs to find a way to
• 10:07
  keep selling cars without turning E sale into a political
• 10:11
  Rorschach test. The company's next step will
• 10:14
  likely include possibly more security and more PR positive
• 10:18
  PR. But what it needs more is less
• 10:20
  chaos. For now, that seems a long way
• 10:23
  off though. These protests will continue as
• 10:26
  long as Elon is involved with the government and Trump.
• 10:29
  Now, political protests are happening against Elon.
• 10:33
  They're spiraling into violent vandalism, prompting the company
• 10:37
  and the government to respond with countermeasures, arrests
• 10:41
  and new questions about the cost of political engagement in
• 10:45
  corporate leadership by Elon Musk and Tesla.
• 10:55
  Hey, thank you so much for listening today.
• 10:57
  I really do appreciate your support.
• 10:59
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• 11:02
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• 11:04
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• 11:07
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• 11:09
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• 11:15
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• 11:18
  to patreon.com/stagezero and please take care of yourselves
• 11:24
  and each other and I'll see you tomorrow.