science

TSLAQ

TSLAQ is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand TSLAQ rather than just read about it. In short: TSLAQ (pronounced "Tesla Q") is a loose, international collective of largely anonymous short-sellers, skeptics, and researchers who openly criticize Tesla, Inc. and its CEO Elon Musk. The group primarily organizes on social media, often using the $TSLAQ cashtag, and on Reddit to coordinate efforts and share news, opinions, and analysis about the company and its stock.

Key takeaways

TSLAQ belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect TSLAQ to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of TSLAQ from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

TSLAQ (pronounced "Tesla Q") is a loose, international collective of largely anonymous short-sellers, skeptics, and researchers who openly criticize Tesla, Inc. and its CEO Elon Musk. The group primarily organizes on social media, often using the $TSLAQ cashtag, and on Reddit to coordinate efforts and share news, opinions, and analysis about the company and its stock. Edward Niedermeyer, in his book Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors (2019), pinpoints the July 2018 doxxing of Twitter user Lawrence Fossi, a Seeking Alpha writer and Tesla short seller operating under the pseudonym Montana Skeptic, as the catalyst for the formation of TSLAQ. TSLAQ highlights what it claims to be a variety of dangerous, deceptive, unlawful or fraudulent business practices by Tesla. On occasion, TSLAQ has exchanged hostilities with Tesla fans over social media. Primarily an online group, TSLAQ's activities at times include aerial and traffic photography and visiting parking lots used by Tesla to store cars not yet sold.

Motivations

According to the Los Angeles Times in 2019, TSLAQ members believe Tesla is a fraudulent company and its stock will eventually crash, while also specifically claiming that Tesla was experiencing a "demand cliff" for its products and has had to regularly distort its sales numbers. Their self-reported main goal as of 2019 was to "change the mind of Tesla stock bulls and the media." Tesla was the most shorted stock in the U.S. in December 2020, with over US$34.5 billion in shorted share value at its peak. Business Insider described TSLAQ member activity in 2019 as consisting of "exchang[ing] research, news articles, and sometimes outlandish conspiracy theories about the company" and that members were "betting on the company's death and have found much success in irritating the billionaire executive."

Criticizing Tesla's practices Tesla under Musk's leadership has been involved in a number of lawsuits and controversies, including investigations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Department of Justice. News of such investigations and subsequent litigation, the alleged fraud and insider-dealing in connection with Tesla's acquisition of SolarCity in 2016 (Tesla won the SolarCity fraud case in 2022), are major organizing points for TSLAQ members. Notably, Elon Musk revealed a "solar roof" shingle in October 2016 that later was disclosed to be fake, as originally speculated by TESLAcharts. The group has also raised questions about accounting irregularities related to warranty reserves, accounts receivables, and regulatory credits. TSLAQ has highlighted a California judge's ruling in 2019 that Tesla had violated labor laws by unfairly disciplining employees who engaged in pro-union activity. According to TSLAQ member Paul91701736, Tesla has frequently failed to achieve overly optimistic production projections. Following Musk's statement that "Tesla does not need to ever raise another funding round" in 2012, TSLAQ and others argue Tesla has had a total negative cash flow of over $8 billion and subsequently raised over $18 billion in additional debt and equity via subsidies and other means. Musk also planned to build a fully automated factory for mass production of the Tesla Model 3, describing the factory as an "unstoppable alien dreadnought ... [the] machine that builds the machine." However, footage produced by a TSLAQ member of activity at the Fremont factory revealed that cars were largely being built by hand.

Hothi defamation lawsuit In April 2019, Tesla filed a lawsuit and a request for a restraining order against TSLAQ member Randeep Hothi, also known as skabooshka. The allegations were:

In February 2019, Mr. Hothi was found sitting in his car in the Tesla Fremont Factory parking lot. Security ordered him to leave, at which point Tesla alleged he exited at high speed and nearly struck an employee. In April 2019, Mr. Hothi spotted a Tesla car on the highway fitted with numerous camera systems and personnel in the car. He proceeded to film the vehicle, believing it to be demonstrating and filming Tesla's Autopilot capabilities. Tesla alleged that he drove erratically and dangerously. In response to the allegations, TSLAQ members led by Lawrence Fossi ran a GoFundMe campaign that raised more than $100,000 for Hothi's defense fund. Tesla refused to produce footage from within the test car on the grounds it "risked the safety and privacy of the employees involved in the case", and dropped the lawsuit and the request for a temporary restraining order against Hothi. After reviewing the surveillance camera footage of the Tesla parking lot from the February incident, Fremont police declined to press charges. In August 2020, Hothi sued Elon Musk for defamation over Musk's accusations in an email exchange with PlainSite's owner Aaron Greenspan that Hothi had almost killed Tesla employees. The presiding judge rejected Musk's motion to strike the lawsuit in January 2021, allowing the trial to move forward. In January 2022, Musk's appeal to strike the lawsuit under anti-SLAPP laws was denied. In April 2023, the parties settled, with Hothi receiving $10,000.

See also Criticism of Tesla, Inc. Elon Musk's Crash Course List of lawsuits involving Tesla Swasticar Tesla Takedown Everyone Hates Elon

References

Further reading Katwala, Amit (June 20, 2019). "Inside the obsessive Twitter turf war over Elon Musk's Tesla tweets". Wired. Niedermeyer, Edward (August 20, 2019). Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors. Dallas, TX. ISBN 978-1-948836-32-6. OCLC 1089841254.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

External links $TSLAQ timeline on X (formerly Twitter) Tesla Deaths Tesla Fire r/EnoughMuskSpam on Reddit

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with TSLAQ

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what TSLAQ claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to TSLAQ before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about TSLAQ ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of TSLAQ

In research: TSLAQ appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses TSLAQ in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: TSLAQ is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Criticisms of companies, Internet-based activism, Protests against Elon Musk, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for TSLAQ outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study TSLAQ in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what TSLAQ means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain TSLAQ out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is TSLAQ in simple terms?

Why does TSLAQ matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study TSLAQ?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on TSLAQ.