Uber Troubles Revealed, Another Executive Leaves While Details Of Tesla Assassination Plan Unveiled

It seems Uber just can’t get a break. On top of the lawsuits surrounding the company, it now has to deal with executives leaving. What’s more, it would seem that a former employee planned an attempt to assassinate Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s character with regards to the tech innovator’s self-driving cars based on revealed court details.

Chris Saad recently became the former head of Uber’s product development. It would appear that the firm’s lackluster focus on development is what made Saad decide to leave, TechCrunch reports. This is understandable as the company is pretty much all hands on deck in trying to put out the fires that are constantly creeping up.

Saad also commented on the internal conditions at Uber, saying that reports of a toxic work environment were overblown.

“I personally would not have described the culture around me as toxic. Difficult, and challenging, and truth-seeking, and maybe even political, but it doesn’t seem to rise to the level you’d expect from the media reports,” he said.

Speaking of fires that Uber needs to put out, new details regarding the legal battle against Waymo revealed that former executive Anthony Levandowski exchanged texts with Travis Kalanick involving plans to smear the CEO of Tesla. Apparently, Levandowski found Musk’s approach to autonomous driving objectionable and wanted to punish him for it.

"We've got to start calling Elon on his s---," one of the texts reads. "I'm not on social media but let's start 'faketesla' and start give physics lessons about stupid s--- Elon says."

As to what Levandowski finds so irritable about Musk, it seems to involve Tesla’s refusal to use Lidar for its Autopilot. Instead, the firm is sticking to good old fashioned radar, Business Insider reports. Levandowski also seemed to indicate that Tesla is hiding more crashes involving its autonomous driving technology, which is clearly an attempt to smear the company’s reputation.