Photo: Nicki Dugan/Tesla/edited by autoevolution
Elon Musk had to go to court to win the right to be called a Tesla founder. However, that only happened when Martin Eberhard agreed to settle a lawsuit against the Tesla CEO. Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning are the ones who founded Tesla in 2003 after the former wanted to buy a sports car that would not throw more carbon into the atmosphere. As there was no one for sale, he decided to build one.
Whenever someone brings up that story, Musk has something to add. The latest example was when Jake Broe shared a picture of Tarpenning and Eberhard to say this:
“It’s always worth reminding Musk’s fan boys (sic) that these are the brilliant men who founded Tesla. Elon was just a series-A investor who bought in, then sabotaged the company enough until these men were pushed out, then he spent the next ten years telling everyone he founded Tesla.”
A Tesla investor tried to refute that and tagged Musk, who replied that “Eberhard was wealthy and could have risked his money, but was unwilling to do so.” He also said he was “head of product and led the design of the original Roadster.” The Tesla CEO often claims to be an engineer without an engineering degree, but this must be the first time he affirms to be a designer. He would have even won a design prize for that. Franz von Holzhausen, beware!
Business Insider talked to Eberhard to learn what he thought about what Musk tweeted, and he said that not one sentence in Musk’s tweet is true. In other words, Musk was neither head of product nor designer. The Tesla founder may also have invested quite a chunk of his money in the company before he needed additional investments.
Eberhard told Business Insider Musk “continues to spew lies” about him 15 years after he left Tesla. In his words, that “says more about Musk than anything else." We have no idea what the deal he made with Musk in 2009 involved. Anyway, it must have forgotten to include that bashing could be a breach. Not that it would be effective, but it could be a deterrent for these public spats.
“It’s always worth reminding Musk’s fan boys (sic) that these are the brilliant men who founded Tesla. Elon was just a series-A investor who bought in, then sabotaged the company enough until these men were pushed out, then he spent the next ten years telling everyone he founded Tesla.”
A Tesla investor tried to refute that and tagged Musk, who replied that “Eberhard was wealthy and could have risked his money, but was unwilling to do so.” He also said he was “head of product and led the design of the original Roadster.” The Tesla CEO often claims to be an engineer without an engineering degree, but this must be the first time he affirms to be a designer. He would have even won a design prize for that. Franz von Holzhausen, beware!
Business Insider talked to Eberhard to learn what he thought about what Musk tweeted, and he said that not one sentence in Musk’s tweet is true. In other words, Musk was neither head of product nor designer. The Tesla founder may also have invested quite a chunk of his money in the company before he needed additional investments.
Eberhard told Business Insider Musk “continues to spew lies” about him 15 years after he left Tesla. In his words, that “says more about Musk than anything else." We have no idea what the deal he made with Musk in 2009 involved. Anyway, it must have forgotten to include that bashing could be a breach. Not that it would be effective, but it could be a deterrent for these public spats.
More importantly, I was head of product and led the design of the original Roadster. Eberhard was wealthy and could have risked his money, but was unwilling to do so.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 27, 2022
Was also due to me that we got trademark to use Tesla Motors as initial name & later obtained https://t.co/46TXqRJBrz URL
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 27, 2022
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