--- title: "Death Reported at Tesla Factory" description: "A death has been reported at Tesla's Gigafactory in Austin, Texas. OSHA has confirmed that it has opened an investigation." date: "2024-08-05" modified: "2024-08-05" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/death-reported-tesla-factory" categories: - "Advanced Transport" - "Tesla" tags: - "gigafactory" - "osha" - "tesla" - "the digest" --- # Death Reported at Tesla Factory ![A death has been reported at Tesla's Gigafactory in Austin, Texas. OSHA has confirmed that it has opened an investigation.]() *\Image: SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP via Getty Images\* ## Death at the Gigafactory A death has been reported at Tesla's Gigafactory in Austin, Texas. According to [local *ABC* affiliate *KVUE*](), authorities were called out to the facility on Thursday, following reports of an adult patient in cardiac arrest. While the person was reportedly rushed to the hospital in critical condition, the local county sheriff's office also noted that it was called out to a report of a "deceased person," suggesting the patient had died. Details are still sparse and the cause of death remains unknown, but the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) confirmed to *KVUE* that it has opened an investigation. ## Pattern Recognition Drone pilot and Tesla fan Joe Tegtmeyer, who has flown his drones over the Gigafactory many times, suggested in a [tweet]() that the death "may be related to a temporary work stoppage on the South Extension construction site." "Unsure if it was a contractor or not, but appears to have been a heart attack," he added. As [*Teslarati* reports](), the extension is expected to house a massive supercomputer cluster to train Tesla's Full Self-Driving software. Unsurprisingly, Tesla has yet to comment publicly. But the EV maker has been the [subject of workplace safety investigations]() in the past. The company has garnered a reputation for what CEO Elon Musk calls a "[hardcore]()" work culture. Employees have to deal with [infamously long hours](), unsafe working conditions, and [plenty of harassment]() and [hate speech aimed at workers of color](). Last year, Chinese government inspectors [found]() that Tesla's Shanghai factory had weaknesses in its safety measures following the death of an employee in February 2023. At Musk's space venture SpaceX, worker injuries have also soared, with [*Reuters* finding last year]() that there had been at least 600 previously unreported workplace injuries at the company. We still don't know if the latest death at Tesla's Austin factory was in any way related to these harsh working conditions. But given Tesla's [total lack of a PR department](), it's unlikely we'll get more details about the incident until OSHA has completed its investigation. **More on Tesla:** *[First Cybertruck Ambulance Has One Small Problem: Nowhere to Put the Patient]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()