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Comment by DoubleCribble | Hacker News Reader

What did he whistleblow on exactly? That car manufacturing is dirty? That parts of the vehicle get dinged & scratched and are still used? What is the revelation here?

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One of the specific claims was that a robot intended for packaging lithium cells into battery modules misbehaved and punctured the battery module casings, damaging some of the cells. He alleges that Tesla then simply fixed the robot, and sent dangerously damaged battery modules to be integrated not vehicles. He published a list of Model 3 VINs which he alleges have the dangerous matters modules installed.

There are other claims about unsafe storage of hazardous waste, but that battery module claim is the one that sticks in my memory.

> Tripp was represented by Meissner Associates in the whistleblower matter earlier, but is now representing himself, attorney Stuart Meissner told CNBC.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/11/tesla-seeks-167-million-in-d...

Did he actually whistleblow?

Whistleblowers leak either to general public or regulators. From the article it sounds like the data went to some private 3rd party. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Tripp filed a whistleblower lawsuit with the SEC as part of his publicity campaign. It's mentioned in the linked article about the tweets.[0]

[0]https://www.engadget.com/2018/08/15/martin-tripp-tesla-tweet...

"The former employee, who used to work as a process engineer at Tesla's Gigafactory, filed a complaint of his own with the Securities and Exchange Commission in June. He accused Tesla of making 'material omissions and misstatements' to investors as well as of putting cars with safety issues on the road."

He did whistle-blow according to the article. According to another article he denies dumping data. https://www.engadget.com/2018/08/15/martin-tripp-tesla-tweet...

His own lawyers have abandoned him on these claims and he is now having to represent himself in the whistle blower case

I can't find any information on online to corroborate what you are saying. Can you share a link?

This article from yesterday indicates that he has attorney representation https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https:/...

> Tripp was represented by Meissner Associates in the whistleblower matter earlier, but is now representing himself, attorney Stuart Meissner told CNBC.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/11/tesla-seeks-167-million-in-d...

His lawyers most likely stopped working for him after some financial incentives by Elon Musk. Musk is known to pull off such things.

It says nothing about his legal status, and if you believe the whistleblower he will be alright.

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