Wednesday rant: Has Elon Musk gone too far this time?

With lockdown in place across most of the world we’ve all experienced the difficulties and compromises that come as part of the deal.

On the whole I think we all agree that a well-conceived lockdown plan is essential to manage this virus as soon as possible in order to get back to some form of normal life (whatever that will look like). That means following the guidelines laid down by your Government.

However, over in California Elon Musk appears not to be listening anymore. He has ordered his staff back to the factory so that they can start producing cars again even though they’re still in an official lockdown. He has taken it upon himself to ignore the guidelines.

In my opinion this is a bad move for Tesla ‘the brand’ and a terrible message to his followers. I appreciate that Tesla has a big order list that needs fulfilling, but at the risk of people’s health seems very irresponsible. People are still dying and in large numbers in the US especially.

Car production is very important (it’s what our own business relies on) but it’s certainly nowhere near as important as the collective efforts to eliminate COVID-19. If we don’t stop this virus now we’ll have to be prepared for many years of misery.

We’re all in this together and need to fight it together. Having a predominate business leader thinking what he does is more important than what the rest of us are doing puts Tesla in a bad light. Profit over human survival rates is not a great slogan to be associated with.

Of course, you would expect Elon’s actions to be condemned by the powers that be - but no. Trump has come out supporting Elon Musk’s back to work order. What can I say? I’m lost for words