Tesla has restarted its only U.S. vehicle factory in Fremont this Monday, defying Alabama County Health Orders. Elon Musk, CEO Tesla, tweeted about resuming operations in the plant, “I will be on the line with everyone else” referring to the assembly line and “If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me.”The Fremont police department has made it clear that no arrests would be made at the factory on Monday.
This isn’t the first time that Elon Musk has decided to go against orders in this rather endless Musk v/s Alameda county saga. Earlier in March, when the county issued its first-in-the-nation shelter in place orders, Musk had decided to continue production at company’s Fremont plant, only to have halted it after massive government intervention.
Tesla is restarting production today against Alameda County rules. I will be on the line with everyone else. If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 11, 2020
Earlier this week, Musk had also threatened to move his factory outside of California to Nevada or Texas. This has received an excited response from a Southern Texas Judge informing Musk that his County is available for accommodating him and has no public health orders.
Musk then filed a lawsuit accusing the Alameda County of offending the federal and California constitution. The CEO has also issued a 37-page document detailing Tesla’s work plan mentioning measures they’ll undertake to prevent the spread of the virus.
Elon Musk has been a sharp critic of the stay-at-home orders throughout the lockdown and has not held back to express his dismay. He has also argued that there is “no substantial difference in the COVID-19 infection rate” between Alameda County, with a death rate of 4.2 per 100,000 residents, and the San Joaquin County, with a death rate of 3.7, where electric automobile factories continue to operate.
Alameda County responded by saying that Tesla was only given permission to conduct “minimum basic operations” and that they are addressing the matter the same way that they would for any other businesses who have defied orders.
Elon Musk’s dismay arises from the fact, that while California Governer Gavin Newsom has allowed some production to resume with advisory, Alameda county has issued opposing orders. Governor Newsom has been seen talking about his old relations with Elon, often providing support to the company. Though he was not aware of the factory reopening, he did say that he believed that the company will be able to resume operations as early as next week. He also mentioned that the conversations between Tesla and the County have been fairly constructive and that the issue will be resolved soon.
Scott Haggerty, Alameda County Supervisor said that the matter concerns not just Tesla but other mom-and-pop stores and large manufacturers too, adding “We need to work with COVID-19 and not hide from it, because it is not going away. But people can’t stay out of work either.”
Meanwhile, Musk has faced our culture’s wrath in full force in the form of twitter users asking to put the entrepreneur in Jail.
