The Case Of Owen Diaz Vs Tesla Rises Again To Trial

Tesla Model S. (Doc. Tesla)

JAKARTA - Last year, a Federal Judge in California, USA, ordered a new trial of a racial discrimination case at Tesla Inc. The ruling comes after Owen Diaz, a former black Tesla worker, rejected compensation of US$15 million from the electric car manufacturer.

Then, this case went up again to trial on Sunday, March 26, 2023. The trial will last for the next five days as reported by Autoblogging, March 27.

In his 2017 lawsuit, Owen Diaz, accused his colleagues and supervisors at Tesla's assembly plant, Fremont, California, of keeping him in an unfriendly work environment. He admitted to experiencing racist, caricature, and swastika tweets.

Diaz also admitted that during his time as a victim of racism and insults at the factory he had once conveyed it to the company's management, but Tesla did not take any action at that time.

Lawrence Organ, a Diaz lawyer, said he hoped the new jury would give a bigger verdict than the 15 million US dollars offered.

"Tesla is focused on trying to make that number zero," Organ said, "but that's a very cynical view to getting black people racially harassed and suggesting it's not worth a lot of money," he continued.

The outcome of Diaz's trial will not directly affect lawsuits over other Tesla court cases, but could encourage other workers to file new lawsuits against the company given its dominance in the electric car market.

Earlier, on Tuesday, March 21, 2023, Tesla also faced different lawsuits in Florida federal court. But this time it concerns the Californian pair who died while driving the Tesla Model S in July 2022.

The family of the couple who died while driving the Tesla Model S in July 2022 has sued Elon Musk's company on charges of unnatural deaths.