Elon Musk defends worker safety record: We aren't 'greedy capitalists who skimp on safety'

Since 2014, ambulances have been called to Tesla’s factory in California, USA, over 100 times for incidents such as fainting spells, dizziness, seizures, abnormal breathing and chest pains, incident reports obtained by The Guardian have found.

As well as this, the company didn’t release its recordable incident rate (TRIR) between 2013 and 2016 because their figures don’t “reflect how the factory operates today”. They did release 2017 TRIR data which showed that their record went slightly above the industry average.

Tesla’s “trippy boss” Elon Musk admitted to The Guardian that workers are “having a hard time, working long hours and on hard jobs,” but pointed toward the firm’s improving safety record as a sign of progress.  

“We’re a money-losing company,” he said. “This is not some situation where, for example, we are just greedy capitalists who decided to skimp on safety in order to have more profits and dividends and that kind of thing.”