On the defensive about safety

By mid-April, Mr. Musk had another problem on his hands: workplace injuries.

In an article published on April 16, the Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news organization, cataloged a number of serious injuries experienced by Tesla factory workers. The article said that Tesla’s injury rate exceeded the industry average in 2016 and that the company had chosen not to report certain episodes as required under California labor law.

In a blog post, Tesla said the article had incorrectly counted some injuries that actually occurred away from the car plant and had relied on “outright inaccurate information.”

Days later, California’s job safety watchdog said that it was investigating a recent incident at the automaker’s factory in Fremont that left a worker hospitalized with a broken jaw.

More on this later.

Dismissing ‘bonehead’ questions

By the beginning of May, the negative news had not relented, and Mr. Musk was no longer in a joking mood.