Tesla is currently facing a new race-based discrimination lawsuit, this time from a former human resources manager at the Fremont Factory. The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court in San Francisco.
The plaintiff in the case, 47-year-old Karen Draper, is claiming that she was terminated for refusing to unlawfully fire a Latina employee who was targeted by a White supervisor. Draper, an African-American, was hired in February 2022 to manage a team of HR personnel at Tesla’s Fremont factory.
As per the legal complaint, Draper faced issues seven months into her tenure when a Latina production supervisor was granted medical leave. A White manager, who allegedly harbored a bias against the supervisor due to her ethnicity and gender, wanted to have the production supervisor terminated during her leave. The defendant, who was not named in the lawsuit, reportedly disliked the supervisor “because of her Latina ethnicity and female gender.”
The lawsuit noted that Draper’s efforts to stop the electric vehicle maker from illegally terminating the production supervisor ended up putting her in direct conflict with the manager. Both the manager pushing for the firing and the production supervisor involved reportedly worked in the Fremont Factory’s Model Y line, as per a report from The Mercury News.
“The Model Y production managers wielded a lot of institutional power within the company and frequently held face-to-face meetings with Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk. Musk frequently traveled to Tesla’s Fremont production facility to walk the Model Y manufacturing line and interact directly with production floor employees and production managers. There was, and remains, constant pressure to keep the Model Y’s sales trajectory high,” the complaint noted.
Draper further alleged that when HR staff who were working under her direction attempted to inform the manager that firing the supervisor without due cause would expose Tesla to legal action, the manager reportedly reacted in a loud and aggressive manner. The plaintiff later met with the manager herself, and he proved “loud, rude, rabid, and intransigent.” The lawsuit claimed that after Draper brought the matter to her direct manager, Tesla opened an investigation against her instead.
Draper also claimed that her managers, during discussions about the dispute, used racial stereotypes against her, dubbing her an “angry Black woman” and accusing her of “playing the race card.” She noted that two months after she refused to terminate the production supervisor, she herself was ousted from her post at the company. The reason behind Draper’s termination was reportedly listed as “performance issues,” which was ironic since Tesla CEO Elon Musk reportedly promoted her personally in June of the previous year.
Draper’s lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, accuses Tesla of retaliation, race-based discrimination, and wrongful termination.
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News
Multiple Tesla Cybercab units spotted at Giga Texas crash test facility
The vehicles were covered, but one could easily recognize the Cybercab’s sleek lines and compact size.

It appears that Tesla is ramping up its activities surrounding the development and likely initial production of the Cybercab at Giga Texas. This was, at least, hinted at in a recent drone flyover of the massive electric vehicle production facility in Austin.
Cybercab sightings fuel speculations
As observed by longtime Giga Texas drone operator Joe Tegtmeyer, Tesla had several covered Cybercab units outside the facility’s crash testing facility at the time of his recent flyover. The vehicles were covered, but one could easily recognize the Cybercab’s sleek lines and compact size. Tegtmeyer also observed during his flyover that production of the Model Y Standard seems to be hitting its pace.
The drone operator noted that the seven covered Cybercabs might be older prototypes being decommissioned or new units awaiting crash tests. Either scenario points to a ramp-up in Cybercab activity at Giga Texas, however. “In either case, this is another datapoint indicating production is getting closer to happening,” Tegtmeyer wrote on X, highlighting that the autonomous two-seaters were quite exciting to see.
Cybercab production targets
This latest sighting follows reports of renewed Cybercab appearances at both the Fremont Factory and Giga Texas. A test unit was recently spotted driving on Giga Texas’ South River Road. Another Cybercab, seen at Tesla’s Fremont Factory, appeared to be manually driven, suggesting that the vehicle’s current prototypes may still be produced with temporary steering controls.
The Tesla Cybercab is designed to be the company’s highest-volume vehicle, with CEO Elon Musk estimating that the autonomous two-seater should see an annual production rate of about 2 million units per year. To accomplish this, Tesla will be building the Cybercab using its “Unboxed” process, which should help the vehicle’s production line achieve outputs that are more akin to consumer electronics production lines.
Elon Musk
Teslas in the Boring Co. Vegas Loop are about to get a big change
Elon Musk has a big update for Teslas that operate within the Boring Company’s Vegas Loop.

Tesla vehicles operating in the Boring Company’s Vegas Loop are about to get a big change, CEO Elon Musk said.
In Las Vegas, the Boring Company operates the Vegas Loop, an underground tunnel system that uses Teslas to drop people off at various hotspots on the strip. It’s been active for a few years now and is expanding to other resorts, hotels, and destinations.
Currently, there are stops at three resorts: Westgate, the Encore, and Resorts World. However, there will eventually be “over 100 stations and span over 68 miles of tunnel,” the Vegas Loop website says.
The Loop utilizes Tesla Model 3 and Model Y vehicles to send passengers to their desired destinations. They are currently driven using the Full Self-Driving suite, but they also have safety drivers in each vehicle to ensure safety.
Tesla Cybertruck rides are crucial for Vegas Loop expansion to airport
Tesla and the Boring Company have been working to remove drivers from the vehicles used in the Loop, but now, it appears there is a set timeline to have them out, according to CEO Elon Musk:
The Tesla cars operating in The Boring Company tunnels under Las Vegas will be driverless in a month or two https://t.co/mX4nNrJui9
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 18, 2025
Musk says the Boring Co. will no longer rely on safety drivers within the Teslas for operation. Instead, Tesla will look to remove the safety drivers from the cars within the next month or two, a similar timeline for what Musk believes the Robotaxi platform will look like in Austin.
In Texas, as Robotaxi continues to operate as it has since June, there are still safety monitors within the car who sit in the passenger’s seat. They are there to ensure a safe experience for riders.
When the route takes the vehicle on the highway, safety monitors move into the driver’s seat.
However, Tesla wants to be able to remove safety monitors from its vehicles in Austin by the end of the year, Musk has said recently.
In early September, Musk said that the safety monitors are “just there for the first few months to be extra safe.” He then added that there “should be no safety driver by end of year.”
The safety driver is just there for the first few months to be extra safe.
Should be no safety driver by end of year.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2025
Elon Musk
Tesla Full Self-Driving gets an offer to be insured for ‘almost free’
“If @elonmusk is game, we’d be happy to explore insuring Tesla FSD miles for (almost) free.”

Tesla Full Self-Driving just got an insurance offer from Lemonade Co-founder and President Shai Wininger that might be too good to pass up, as he wants to insure vehicles on FSD for “almost free.”
Traditionally, Tesla vehicles are slightly more expensive to insure with traditional companies because of higher repair costs that stem from their technology and state-of-the-art structural battery design.
However, the development of the Full Self-Driving suite by Tesla has certainly pulled some tech entrepreneurs and others to believe the vehicles should be much cheaper to insure.
While there are certainly people on both sides of the spectrum, a handful of notable tech figures believe the data shows that Teslas operating on FSD are safer than human drivers.
Tesla Q2 2025 vehicle safety report proves FSD makes driving almost 10X safer
One of the tech figures who believes that is Shai Wininger, President and Co-founder of Lemonade, an insurance company that has nearly two million customers.
On X, Wininger recently announced the direct integration with Tesla vehicles that would roll out to Lemonade customers. The integration would “remove the need for a UBI device in our Pay Per Mile product. This makes activating Lemonade Car on Teslas effortless and lets us cut hardware and shipping costs, helping lower prices for Tesla drivers even further.”
He said the Tesla API complemented Lemonade’s platform because it provides “richer and more accurate driving behavior data than traditional UBI devices.”
He then proposed an idea to CEO Elon Musk, stating that Lemonade would “be happy to explore insuring Tesla FSD miles for (almost) free.”
If @elonmusk is game, we’d be happy to explore insuring Tesla FSD miles for (almost) free. https://t.co/VDcKX1JzSi
— Shai Wininger (@shai_wininger) October 17, 2025
It would provide Tesla drivers with stable and accurate insurance, while also incentivizing owners to utilize the Full Self-Driving suite for their miles, making the semi-autonomous driving platform extremely cost-effective to use.
Wininger said it would be available in states where Tesla’s in-house insurance program is not available. Tesla Insurance is available in twelve states, and is looking to expand in Florida, as we reported earlier this week. However, it has not expanded to a new state in about three years.
The thought of Lemonade being able to insure FSD miles for almost nothing is an extremely attractive offer from Wininger, and could potentially be a new outlet to make Teslas even less expensive to own and operate throughout their lifetime.
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