Elon Musk jokes about whistleblowing in Tesla merchandise tweet

Tesla has faced several lawsuits in the US in recent months from current and former employees, some of whom have complained of harassment while at work.

Owen Diaz, a former contracted elevator operator, had complained of racial abuse while working at the plant between 2015 and 2016.

Musk, whose personal worth is estimated at about $271bn, has a track record of courting controversy through his tweets, his preferred means of communication. In recent months he has promoted bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, polled Twitter users over whether to sell some of his Tesla shares, and also mocked the US Senator Bernie Sanders over comments about taxing the wealthy.

Some of his tweets have got him and his company into trouble. The US securities watchdog warned Tesla last year that Musk had twice violated a settlement requiring his tweets and material public communications to be pre-approved by company lawyers, as first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The armoured vehicle was revealed two years ago, in November 2019, with Musk tweeting only days later that the company had received 150,000 orders.

Musk has told Tesla investors that Cybertruck production will begin in 2022. However, in recent days he complained of supply chain problems in response to a tweet requesting an update on Cybertruck delivery.