Billionaire Elon Musk urged his 65 million followers on Twitter to “Blow the whistle on Tesla!” with a link to a branded “Cyberwhistle” available for purchase in the company’s online shop.
Cyberwhistle: In the form of a whistle, Tesla has introduced a new premium collectable for its fans. Called the Cyberwhistle, it is a product inspired by its Cybertruck. The product will cost $50 and is expected to go on sale soon. According to the Tesla website, the Cyberwhistle is made from “medical-grade stainless steel” and is intended to be “inspired” by the Cybertruck, an electric pickup truck made from the same stainless steel used in rockets.
Musk tweeted just days after the armoured vehicle was revealed two years ago that the company had received 150,000 orders. Musk has assured Tesla investors that Cybertruck production will begin in 2022, but he has recently complained of supply chain issues following a tweet asking for an update on Cybertruck delivery.
The stainless steel whistle, shaped like Tesla’s futuristic Cybertruck vehicle, had sold out online within minutes of being priced at $50 (£38). Many of Musk’s Twitter followers had tweeted to say that they had bought the item.
The 50-year-old CEO of Space X followed up his comment with a tweet that read: “Don’t waste your money on Apple’s silly cloth – buy our whistle instead!”. This was a reference to Apple’s recently unveiled cloth, available through the firm’s UK website for £19.
Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief executive, appeared to joke on Twitter about whistleblowers following high-profile lawsuits filed by Tesla’s employees and former employees.
Recently, Tesla has been faced with a number of lawsuits in the United States from co-workers and former co-workers who claim they were harassed at work. In October, a federal court in California ordered Tesla to pay almost $137m in compensation to a black former employee who claimed he suffered racial abuse at the company’s main factory in Fremont.
Between 2015 and 2016, Owen Diaz, a former contracted elevator operator, complained of racial abuse while working at the plant. An employee at Tesla’s main California factory filed a lawsuit in November alleging rampant sexual harassment and the failure of supervisors to support complaints. According to Jessica Barraza, she was constantly propositioned by colleagues and endured inappropriate touching at the Fremont plant. The firm’s human resources department had not handled her complaints in September or October.
A man worth an estimated $271bn, Musk has courted controversy through tweets, his primary communication method. He has promoted bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, recently polled Twitter users about whether to sell some of his Tesla shares and mocked US Senator Bernie Sanders over remarks about taxing the wealthy. Last year, the US Securities and Exchange Commission warned Tesla that Musk had violated a settlement requiring his tweets and public communications to be pre-approved by his company lawyers, first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
