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Earlier this week, we reported that a group of Norwegian Tesla owners was planning a hunger strike to protest defects in their cars. In doing so, they hoped to get the attention of Elon Musk himself. The strike is already over, and I don’t think they made much progress because it lasted just 24 hours.
What’s more, 16 of the 20 participants couldn’t make it a full day without a snack. This is according to an email the group sent to The Drive, in which they also provided more details on the so-called strike.
Their list of grievances is pictured above, and their intent was to catch the eye of Elon Musk so he could directly instruct Tesla Norway to “take better care of their customers.” The group, made up of 20 people with 17 cars, had all previously been in contact with Tesla but said that they were “not happy with the way their cases [have] been resolved,” and so had to take drastic action… If that’s what you’d call this.
Not to play backseat driver to a hunger strike, but I’m pretty sure 24 hours without eating is barely a hunger strike. Mahatma Gandhi, who repeatedly went on hunger strikes throughout his life to protest British colonial rule of India, has an entire Wikipedia page devoted solely to his fasting (the longest period was 21 days, if you’re curious). In the 1981 Irish hunger strike, 10 strikers died between the 59th and 73rd days of their strikes, and they changed the entire political future of Ireland with their deaths. To call a single day without a meal a “hunger strike” over quality control issues—with a car famous for quality control issues, no less—is a bit insulting to everyone who’s ever actually engaged in a hunger strike.
And even then, 16 people in this “hunger strike” couldn’t even make it the entire day! I’m pretty positive I went a day without eating in college by accident. I was really hungry later, but Elon Musk did not notice. Ah well.
