Hidden Problems of Silicon Valley

Since its founding 15 years ago, Tesla has become one of the most valuable car companies in the country. Tesla is worth tens of billions of dollars, and its all-electric cars have achieved cult status among enthusiasts.

Radio Impact2018 Third Coast / Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition

2018 / Will Evans / Alyssa Jeong Perry / Reveal , USA

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Since its founding 15 years ago, Tesla has become one of the most valuable car companies in the country. Tesla is worth tens of billions of dollars, and its all-electric cars have achieved cult status among enthusiasts.

Along the way, though, Tesla workers have been sliced by machinery, crushed by forklifts, burned in electrical explosions and sprayed with molten metal. Reveal and KQED teamed up and found that the company prioritized production over safety and disregarded the warnings of its own safety staff. Tesla responded by calling Reveal an "extremist organization" and CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to call the news organization "just some rich kids in Berkeley who took their political science prof too seriously."

Hidden Problems of Silicon Valley was produced by Will Evans and Alyssa Jeong Perry and edited by Taki Telonidis with Ziva Branstetter for Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX in partnership with KQED.

Credit: Musk photo by David McNew, photo illustration by Gabriel Hongsdusit/ Reveal

produced by

Will Evans

Will Evans is a reporter covering labor and workplace issues at Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX.

Alyssa Jeong Perry

Alyssa Jeong Perry is an audio reporter at KPCC (formerly with KQED in San Francisco).

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