Wall Street Times: Musk vs. US Regulators

The Wall Street Journal stated that Musk, who has been highly regarded by investors for his unconventional behavior in recent years, has been in constant conflict with many US government agencies, but in a series of conflicts with these agencies, Musk has always been the winner.

The author of the article pointed out that many regulatory agencies have also been concerned about Musk’s attempts to evade regulatory regulations or ignore law enforcement measures. In the past, financial market regulators and regulatory agencies responsible for workplace, road traffic, and aerospace safety have all eaten. Lost the battle. Several federal regulatory agencies have claimed that Musk violated the law and threatened public safety. Musk ridiculed each other, saying that the supervisory authorities’ approach is a drag on the progress of the times, and he has adopted different strategies to avoid supervisory regulations becoming a stumbling block to his progress.

This article re-displayed the process of the head-on confrontation between Musk and law enforcement agencies from public remarks, SpaceX explosion accident, Gigafactory inspection incident, and Tesla’s fatal traffic.

In terms of public speech, even when compared to other Silicon Valley giants who have long been dissatisfied with regulators, Musk is particularly maverick. In the process of dealing with the regulatory authorities, Musk did not choose the practice of mutual understanding and mutual accommodation. His usual method is to publicly post derogatory remarks through Twitter, sometimes even vulgar language. The Securities and Exchange Commission (Securities and Exchange Commission, referred to as SEC) once asked Tesla to provide information on whether Tesla will review the public information he released in accordance with the requirements of the court settlement agreement reached with Musk in 2018. But the billionaire responded by posting a vulgar and obviously insinuating tweet on Twitter last summer: “SEC, the acronym for three words, the middle word is Elon’s.” When asked to comment on some specific content of this article, Musk replied with a “poo” emoticon. When asked to elaborate, Musk declined to comment on his interactions with federal agencies or his views on regulation. In a tweet on April 27, Musk said that he recognized the opinions of the regulator “99.9% of the time.” But he added that the reason for the disagreement is “almost always because of new technologies that are not foreseen by outdated regulations.”

Nathan Weiss, an independent research analyst who has been following Tesla for a long time, said that Musk’s fans regard him as a “freedom fighter” and cheer for him.

When SpaceX tested its starship SN8 rocket in Boca Chica, Texas, the rocket collided with the launch pad and exploded. After the FAA asked SpaceX to postpone its launch in January of this year, Musk accused the agency of dragging down the progress of research and development, and said that its regulatory regulations are outdated. “These regulations are for a small number of non-recyclable launches carried out at government facilities each year,” Musk wrote on Twitter on January 28. “According to these regulations, humans will never be able to go to Mars.” The FAA director called to warn Musk. He must comply with FAA regulations.

Tesla also rejected the request of OSHA officials to enter its Gigafactory in Nevada for on-site inspections after an accident at the plant. OSHA, Nevada, obtained an executive order from a judge on May 20, 2019, allowing a full inspection of the Tesla Gigafactory. Despite the execution order, a Tesla manager refused to enter the factory.

“They are difficult to deal with, and they treat us like this.” The deputy police chief said.

A more compelling issue currently facing Tesla involves its advanced driver assistance feature called Autopilot. Because it is related to a series of traffic accidents, the system has been reviewed by regulatory authorities many times. After a fatal car accident in Florida in 2016, the National Transportation Safety Board found that Tesla’s advanced driving assistance technology was related to the accident. This system allows the driver to leave the steering wheel with both hands for a long time.

As a 9-year-old can program and write games to make money, read the Wharton School of Business can write an extremely complete business plan on supercapacitors (the core technology of electric sports cars) and solar energy (these were extremely cutting-edge technologies at the time) The genius who reinvented the electric car and planned to send people to Mars with a rocket spacecraft. How could he be a calm and normal guy?