Investor's Corner
Former Tesla employee fires back at lawsuit, claims he’s a whistleblower
Martin Tripp, a former process technician for Tesla, is fighting back after receiving a lawsuit from the Elon Musk-led company. Speaking to the media, Tripp alleged that he only shared data with outside parties because he was trying to warn investors and the public about Tesla’s questionable activities.
In a statement to CNN Money, Tripp stated that he was being “singled out” by Tesla for being a whistleblower. Tripp also denied hacking into Tesla’s system, stating that he went to the media because he was alarmed by the data he was collecting.
“I am being singled out for being a whistleblower. I didn’t hack into (the) system. The data I was collecting was so severe; I had to go to the media,” Tripp said.
Tripp alleged that he had discovered 1,100 damaged Model 3 battery modules that were installed on the compact electric cars, as well as excessive scrap that was being stored in a dangerous manner in Tesla’s Nevada property. The former process technician also alleged that Tesla inflated the number of Model 3 produced during the first quarter, stating that the number was closer to 1,900 instead of Tesla’s official 2,020 figure. In a statement to the Washington Post, Tripp stated that he was ultimately disenchanted with Tesla during his tenure with the company.
“I looked up to Elon, I looked up to Tesla. I was always drooling about the Teslas and wanting to buy one, and I was living the mission: to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy. (I) grew disillusioned after seeing the company’s waste, unsustainable practices and seeing how Elon was lying to investors about how many cars they were making. I wanted to leave the world better for my son, and I felt I was doing everything but that,” he said.
Tripp has stated that he is currently looking for a lawyer, and official protections as a whistleblower.
Tripp’s allegations towards the company stand in stark contrast to Tesla’s claims in its lawsuit, which it filed in a Nevada court on Wednesday. According to Tesla’s complaint, Tripp had engaged in several activities against the interests of the company, including hacking the manufacturing operating system, exporting confidential data to outside entities, and misreporting to the media. In the lawsuit’s background, Tesla stated that Tripp had begun his employment with the company on October 2017, though he was reassigned to a new role on May 2018 due to job performance problems and his tendency to be combative and disruptive towards his colleagues.
The electric car and energy company alleged that Tripp had hacked the Tesla Manufacturing Operating System and transferred several gigabytes worth of confidential and proprietary data, including photos and a video of Tesla’s battery module production line, to outside entities. Tesla’s lawsuit further alleged that Trip had attempted to recruit additional sources inside Gigafactory 1 to share data outside the company. Tesla is suing Tripp over violations of the Defend Trade Secrets Act, the Nevada Uniform Trade Secrets Act, and the Nevada Computer Crimes Law, as well as Breach of Contract and Breach of Fiduciary Duty of Loyalty.
The full text of Tesla’s lawsuit against Martin Tripp could be accessed here.
This past weekend, Elon Musk sent out a company-wide email stating that the company had been a victim of a rather “extensive and damaging sabotage.” While Tesla has identified Tripp as the offender behind some of the attacks against the company, the company’s lawsuit did not include the word “sabotage” in its complaint against the former employee.
Tesla is currently attempting to hit its Model 3 production goals for the second quarter, and over the past few weeks, the company has shown encouraging signs that it is approaching its goal. Earlier this month, Elon Musk stated that Tesla is producing 500 cars a day, and just recently, a photo of the first Model 3 Performance Dual Motor being rolled off a new assembly line was shared on Twitter.
Investor's Corner
Tesla analyst realizes one big thing about the stock: deliveries are losing importance
Tesla analyst Dan Levy of Barclays realized one big thing about the stock moving into 2026: vehicle deliveries are losing importance.
As a new era of Tesla seems to be on the horizon, the concern about vehicle deliveries and annual growth seems to be fading, at least according to many investors.
Even CEO Elon Musk has implied at times that the automotive side, as a whole, will only make up a small percentage of Tesla’s total valuation, as Optimus and AI begin to shine with importance.
He said in April:
“The future of the company is fundamentally based on large-scale autonomous cars and large-scale and large volume, vast numbers of autonomous humanoid robots.”
Almost all of Tesla’s value long-term will be from AI & robots, both vehicle & humanoid
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 11, 2023
Levy wrote in a note to investors that Tesla’s Q4 delivery figures “likely won’t matter for the stock.” Barclays said in the note that it expects deliveries to be “soft” for the quarter.
In years past, Tesla analysts, investors, and fans were focused on automotive growth.
Cars were truly the biggest thing the stock had to offer: Tesla was a growing automotive company with a lot of prowess in AI and software, but deliveries held the most impact, along with vehicle pricing. These types of things had huge impacts on the stock years ago.
In fact, several large swings occurred because of Tesla either beating or missing delivery estimates:
- January 3, 2022: +13.53%, record deliveries at the time
- January 3, 2023: -12.24%, missed deliveries
- July 2, 2024: +10.20%, beat delivery expectations
- October 3, 2022: -8.61%, sharp miss due to Shanghai factory shutdown
- July 2, 2020: +7.95%, topped low COVID-era expectations with sizeable beat on deliveries
It has become more apparent over the past few quarters that delivery estimates have significantly less focus from investors, who are instead looking for progress in AI, Optimus, Cybercab, and other projects.
These things are the future of the company, and although Tesla will always sell cars, the stock is more impacted by the software the vehicle is running, and not necessarily the vehicle itself.
Investor's Corner
SpaceX IPO is coming, CEO Elon Musk confirms
However, it appears Musk is ready for SpaceX to go public, as Ars Technica Senior Space Editor Eric Berger wrote an op-ed that indicated he thought SpaceX would go public soon. Musk replied, basically confirming it.
Elon Musk confirmed through a post on X that a SpaceX initial public offering (IPO) is on the way after hinting at it several times earlier this year.
It also comes one day after Bloomberg reported that SpaceX was aiming for a valuation of $1.5 trillion, adding that it wanted to raise $30 billion.
Musk has been transparent for most of the year that he wanted to try to figure out a way to get Tesla shareholders to invest in SpaceX, giving them access to the stock.
He has also recognized the issues of having a public stock, like litigation exposure, quarterly reporting pressures, and other inconveniences.
However, it appears Musk is ready for SpaceX to go public, as Ars Technica Senior Space Editor Eric Berger wrote an op-ed that indicated he thought SpaceX would go public soon.
Musk replied, basically confirming it:
As usual, Eric is accurate
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 10, 2025
Berger believes the IPO would help support the need for $30 billion or more in capital needed to fund AI integration projects, such as space-based data centers and lunar satellite factories. Musk confirmed recently that SpaceX “will be doing” data centers in orbit.
AI appears to be a “key part” of SpaceX getting to Musk, Berger also wrote. When writing about whether or not Optimus is a viable project and product for the company, he says that none of that matters. Musk thinks it is, and that’s all that matters.
It seems like Musk has certainly mulled something this big for a very long time, and the idea of taking SpaceX public is not just likely; it is necessary for the company to get to Mars.
The details of when SpaceX will finally hit that public status are not known. Many of the reports that came out over the past few days indicate it would happen in 2026, so sooner rather than later.
But there are a lot of things on Musk’s plate early next year, especially with Cybercab production, the potential launch of Unsupervised Full Self-Driving, and the Roadster unveiling, all planned for Q1.
Investor's Corner
Tesla Full Self-Driving statistic impresses Wall Street firm: ‘Very close to unsupervised’
The data shows there was a significant jump in miles traveled between interventions as Tesla transitioned drivers to v14.1 back in October. The FSD Community Tracker saw a jump from 441 miles to over 9,200 miles, the most significant improvement in four years.
Tesla Full Self-Driving performance and statistics continue to impress everyone, from retail investors to Wall Street firms. However, one analyst believes Tesla’s driving suite is “very close” to achieving unsupervised self-driving.
On Tuesday, Piper Sandler analyst Alexander Potter said that Tesla’s recent launch of Full Self-Driving version 14 increased the number of miles traveled between interventions by a drastic margin, based on data compiled by a Full Self-Driving Community Tracker.
🚨 Piper Sandler reiterated its Overweight rating and $500 PT on Tesla $TSLA stock
Analyst Alexander Potter said FSD is near full autonomy and latest versions showed the largest improvement in disengagements, from 440 miles to 9,200 miles between critical interventions pic.twitter.com/u4WCLfZcA9
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) December 9, 2025
The data shows there was a significant jump in miles traveled between interventions as Tesla transitioned drivers to v14.1 back in October. The FSD Community Tracker saw a jump from 441 miles to over 9,200 miles, the most significant improvement in four years.
Interestingly, there was a slight dip in the miles traveled between interventions with the release of v14.2. Piper Sandler said investor interest in FSD has increased.
Full Self-Driving has displayed several improvements with v14, including the introduction of Arrival Options that allow specific parking situations to be chosen by the driver prior to arriving at the destination. Owners can choose from Street Parking, Parking Garages, Parking Lots, Chargers, and Driveways.
Additionally, the overall improvements in performance from v13 have been evident through smoother operation, fewer mistakes during routine operation, and a more refined decision-making process.
Early versions of v14 exhibited stuttering and brake stabbing, but Tesla did a great job of confronting the issue and eliminating it altogether with the release of v14.2.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk also recently stated that the current v14.2 FSD suite is also less restrictive with drivers looking at their phones, which has caused some controversy within the community.
Although we tested it and found there were fewer nudges by the driver monitoring system to push eyes back to the road, we still would not recommend it due to laws and regulations.
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.2.1 texting and driving: we tested it
With that being said, FSD is improving significantly with each larger rollout, and Musk believes the final piece of the puzzle will be unveiled with FSD v14.3, which could come later this year or early in 2026.
Piper Sandler reaffirmed its $500 price target on Tesla shares, as well as its ‘Overweight’ rating.
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