From a lawsuit to COVID-19 cases in Tesla plant to new requirements for self-driven cars: Tesla and Elon Musk have some tough times ahead

Suddenly, Elon Musk’s decisions have landed him and his company Tesla in trouble. On one hand, one investor has filed a lawsuit against the Tesla Board and Musk over "erratic tweets". On the other hand, there is a report stating that from May to December, there were 450 COVID-19 cases found in Tesla’s Bay Area production plant, California.

In addition, the federal agency in the US, the National Transportation Safety Board, has called for tougher requirements on testing autonomous driving. These changes proposed by the agency will impact Tesla’s testing plans. In the past, the federal agency in the country was against the idea of regulating the autonomous driving fearing delay in innovation, but now it feels the latest version of autonomous driving technology may pose a risk to motorists.

For a long-time, Musk has been in the news for his tweets that got the markets moving. Now, a Tesla investor in a 105-page derivative lawsuit stated that Musk has exposed the company to billions in potential liability and market losses by continuing to send “erratic” tweets, stated Bloomberg report.

The lawsuit further stressed that Musk has continued violating a 2018 settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission and no action has been taken by the board for this behaviour. In 2018, the SEC charged Musk for a tweet where he claimed that if Tesla’s stock price hit $420, he will make Tesla Private.

However, the trouble does not end there. According to the Washington Post, Musk was against the lockdown imposed by the local authorities on its Bay Area production plant. However, after an agreement with local authorities, he reopened the plant which led to around 450 COVID-19 cases (from May 2020 to December 2020) being found in a plant that has around 10,000 people working there. This was not the only plant where COVID-19 cases were found. In Tesla’s facilities in Fremont, California as well there were multiple cases due to which plant had to be shut down for some time.