Tesla faces a new lawsuit alleging severe harassment of Black employees at its Fremont, California factory, as filed by a federal civil rights agency this week.
On Thursday, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a lawsuit against Tesla in federal court, claiming that, since 2015, the company’s Black workers have been subject to racist slurs and graffiti, including images of swastikas and nooses, according to a report from Reuters.
The suit is just the latest in allegations of racial discrimination at the automaker’s Fremont, California factory, and it comes just over a week after another lawsuit claiming toxic work environments at Tesla’s factories was dismissed.
According to this week’s lawsuit, Tesla hasn’t investigated the claims of racist conduct since the EEOC first raised them, and it also claims that the automaker has fired some employees who reported cases of harassment. Tesla has said in the past that it doesn’t tolerate any racial discrimination, adding that it takes complaints from its workers very seriously.
The lawsuit comes after it was found that the EEOC was investigating Tesla last year, with the agency saying that it discovered “reasonable cause” to believe the automaker went against federal discrimination laws. The EEOC then tried to enter into a settlement with Tesla, though discussions to settle reportedly failed. Investigations began when EEOC chair Charlotte Burrows filed an internal complaint with the commission, considered a charge against Tesla.
“Every employee deserves to have their civil rights respected, and no worker should endure the kind of shameful racial bigotry our investigation revealed,” Burrows said.
Reuters notes that the EEOC typically settles lawsuits directly with employers, adding that it’s somewhat uncommon for the agency’s cases to make it to trial.
The suit also represents the first set of federal charges brought against Tesla for allegations of racial discrimination, with similar lawsuits previously arising from the state of California and past employees. Stephen Diamond, a Santa Clara University law professor who has previously advised Tesla investors on social responsibility, notes that the escalation to the federal level could make it harder for the automaker to defend itself against allegations of discrimination.
“If the federal government gets involved, it certainly adds credibility to the claims,” Diamond said. “Major institutional investors like pension funds will be very concerned about this type of behavior.”
The lawsuit is seeking to make Tesla pay compensation and punitive damages to an unspecified number of its Black workers at the Fremont location, and it would also force the automaker to improve policies related to discrimination and retaliation.
Tesla also faces a racial discrimination case from the California Civil Rights Department (DCR), which is considered a counterpart of the EEOC’s on the state level. That particular suit alleges that Tesla discriminated against Black workers in decisions about wages, promotions and general work assignments. Tesla requested that the DCR dismiss the case last year, saying it was politically motivated, though a judge denied the request.
In addition, a former Black contract elevator operator at the Fremont factory, Owen Diaz, is now seeking his third trial with Tesla from a 2017 lawsuit alleging racial discrimination. In the suit, Diaz said he was told to “go back to Africa” and was called the N-word without any action taken by the automaker despite his repeated complaints. A jury awarded Diaz $3.2 million in April after he rejected a separate payout in 2021 that the judge had reduced from $137 million to $15 million.
Tesla is also facing a class-action lawsuit from around 240 employees in California, claiming that the company mistreated Black workers at the Fremont factory.
Former Tesla employee looks to add almost 240 plaintiffs in racism lawsuit
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Tesla Robotaxi ride-hailing without a Safety Monitor is proving to be a difficult task, according to some riders who made the journey to Austin to attempt to ride in one of its vehicles that has zero supervision.
Last week, Tesla officially removed Safety Monitors from some — not all — of its Robotaxi vehicles in Austin, Texas, answering skeptics who said the vehicles still needed supervision to operate safely and efficiently.
BREAKING: Tesla launches public Robotaxi rides in Austin with no Safety Monitor
Tesla aimed to remove Safety Monitors before the end of 2025, and it did, but only to company employees. It made the move last week to open the rides to the public, just a couple of weeks late to its original goal, but the accomplishment was impressive, nonetheless.
However, the small number of Robotaxis that are operating without Safety Monitors has proven difficult to hail for a ride. David Moss, who has gained notoriety recently as the person who has traveled over 10,000 miles in his Tesla on Full Self-Driving v14 without any interventions, made it to Austin last week.
He has tried to get a ride in a Safety Monitor-less Robotaxi for the better part of four days, and after 38 attempts, he still has yet to grab one:
Wow just wow!
It’s 8:30PM, 29° out ice storm hailing & Tesla Robotaxi service has turned back on!
Waymo is offline & vast majority of humans are home in the storm
Ride 38 was still supervised but by far most impressive yet pic.twitter.com/1aUnJkcYm8
— David Moss (@DavidMoss) January 25, 2026
Tesla said last week that it was rolling out a controlled test of the Safety Monitor-less Robotaxis. Ashok Elluswamy, who heads the AI program at Tesla, confirmed that the company was “starting with a few unsupervised vehicles mixed in with the broader Robotaxi fleet with Safety Monitors,” and that “the ratio will increase over time.”
This is a good strategy that prioritizes safety and keeps the company’s controlled rollout at the forefront of the Robotaxi rollout.
However, it will be interesting to see how quickly the company can scale these completely monitor-less rides. It has proven to be extremely difficult to get one, but that is understandable considering only a handful of the cars in the entire Austin fleet are operating with no supervision within the vehicle.
Tesla has given its biggest hint that Full Self-Driving in Europe is imminent, as a new feature seems to show that the company is preparing for frequent border crossings.
Tesla owner and influencer BLKMDL3, also known as Zack, recently took his Tesla to the border of California and Mexico at Tijuana, and at the international crossing, Full Self-Driving showed an interesting message: “Upcoming country border — FSD (Supervised) will become unavailable.”
FSD now shows a new message when approaching an international border crossing.
Stayed engaged the whole way as we crossed the border and worked great in Mexico! pic.twitter.com/bDzyLnyq0g
— Zack (@BLKMDL3) January 26, 2026
Due to regulatory approvals, once a Tesla operating on Full Self-Driving enters a new country, it is required to comply with the laws and regulations that are applicable to that territory. Even if legal, it seems Tesla will shut off FSD temporarily, confirming it is in a location where operation is approved.
This is something that will be extremely important in Europe, as crossing borders there is like crossing states in the U.S.; it’s pretty frequent compared to life in America, Canada, and Mexico.
Tesla has been working to get FSD approved in Europe for several years, and it has been getting close to being able to offer it to owners on the continent. However, it is still working through a lot of the red tape that is necessary for European regulators to approve use of the system on their continent.
This feature seems to be one that would be extremely useful in Europe, considering the fact that crossing borders into other countries is much more frequent than here in the U.S., and would cater to an area where approvals would differ.
Tesla has been testing FSD in Spain, France, England, and other European countries, and plans to continue expanding this effort. European owners have been fighting for a very long time to utilize the functionality, but the red tape has been the biggest bottleneck in the process.
Tesla Europe builds momentum with expanding FSD demos and regional launches
Tesla operates Full Self-Driving in the United States, China, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea.
Elon Musk
SpaceX Starship V3 gets launch date update from Elon Musk
The first flight of Starship Version 3 and its new Raptor V3 engines could happen as early as March.
Elon Musk has announced that SpaceX’s next Starship launch, Flight 12, is expected in about six weeks. This suggests that the first flight of Starship Version 3 and its new Raptor V3 engines could happen as early as March.
In a post on X, Elon Musk stated that the next Starship launch is in six weeks. He accompanied his announcement with a photo that seemed to have been taken when Starship’s upper stage was just about to separate from the Super Heavy Booster. Musk did not state whether SpaceX will attempt to catch the Super Heavy Booster during the upcoming flight.
The upcoming flight will mark the debut of Starship V3. The upgraded design includes the new Raptor V3 engine, which is expected to have nearly twice the thrust of the original Raptor 1, at a fraction of the cost and with significantly reduced weight. The Starship V3 platform is also expected to be optimized for manufacturability.
The Starship V3 Flight 12 launch timeline comes as SpaceX pursues an aggressive development cadence for the fully reusable launch system. Previous iterations of Starship have racked up a mixed but notable string of test flights, including multiple integrated flight tests in 2025.
Interestingly enough, SpaceX has teased an aggressive timeframe for Starship V3’s first flight. Way back in late November, SpaceX noted on X that it will be aiming to launch Starship V3’s maiden flight in the first quarter of 2026. This was despite setbacks like a structural anomaly on the first V3 booster during ground testing.
“Starship’s twelfth flight test remains targeted for the first quarter of 2026,” the company wrote in its post on X.
Tesla Robotaxi ride-hailing without a Safety Monitor proves to be difficult
Tesla gives its biggest hint that Full Self-Driving in Europe is imminent
