Medlock, a former employee gives us a behind the scenes look at Elon Musk
The Iced Coffee Hour/YouTube
Elon Musk is a diligent leader who is dedicated to achieving a more sustainable future for mankind. In Tesla’s early days, Musk had a “very disciplined” approach to managing the automotive company.
Carl Medlock, a former territory manager at Tesla, discussed what it was like working for Musk on an episode of “The Iced Coffee Hour” podcast, which is hosted by real estate investor Graham Stephan and Jack Selby.
Medlock joined Tesla in 2009 during the recession. He was offered a healthy six-figure salary and 40,000 stock options that he reluctantly had to sell due to divorce proceedings, according to the New York Post.
“You don’t argue with him,” Medlock said. “When Elon stands up at the end of a meeting and says, ‘This is the direction we’re going to go,’ you stand up from your chair and you better head that direction. Because he’s not one for people back-talking - he’ll just let you go.”
“I actually saw him sleep on a desk once,” Medlock said. He even took a photo of the unusual situation, but then deleted it almost immediately.
“I deleted the photo. I should have kept the photo, but I deleted the photo out of respect. I took the picture and thought, ‘Oh my God, you’re going to get fired for this.”
The stress and difficulty of running one of the world’s most valuable automakers - and one of the only automotive companies in the United States to never go bankrupt - added to the hefty burden of saving humankind.
When Medlock was interviewing at Tesla, one of his final interviews was with Musk in which they discussed his customer service and real-world experiences.
“We just had a conversation and I got the job,” Medlock said.
But despite Musk’s unprecedented work ethic and rigid management style, Medlock said he was a good person. Musk wasn’t very social in the workplace, but he said Musk is very intelligent and easy to talk to.
“He’s actually a really good guy,” Medlock said. “He’s incredibly smart, so he’s intimidating in that regard, but if you look at it based on his kids. The guy loves his kids, he loves his family, he’s a good dad and he’s just easy to talk to.”
Interview
You can watch the entire interview below.
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Tesla’s recent focus on expanding and vertically integrating its battery production is beginning to take global steps, starting with a battery recycling and service center in South Australia. In Marion, a suburb of Adelaide, the council recently voted in favor of a proposal that would see contaminated public land developed and leased to Tesla.
The move promises local jobs and environmental remediation but has garnered a lot of public debate focused on Elon’s moves outside his role as CEO.
The proposal involves a site that’s currently unusable for recreation due to chemical contamination. A local developer plans to acquire and remediate the land, constructing a new facility specifically for Tesla. This site would reportedly serve two purposes: recycling old lithium-ion batteries and serving as a Tesla Service Center.
Tesla’s Commitment to Recycling
Tesla recently announced its intention to ramp up its battery recycling and repurposing efforts. During the Q1 2025 Earnings Call, Tesla’s executives highlighted substantial progress. Tesla had recycled enough materials in Q1 2025 to build approximately 21,000 Model Y RWD vehicles, representing a 136% year-over-year increase from Q1 2024.
Dedicated regional hubs like this one would be a logical next step in expanding the recycling loop and furthering Tesla’s vertical integration while also reducing its reliance on new materials. In addition, local sources also mentioned that Tesla could be repurposing older lithium-ion batteries for other purposes, including their inclusion in stationary battery storage systems like Powerwall or Megapack.
Of course, the facility also has major benefits for the local community, including creating around 100 local jobs, as well as injecting approximately $56 million into the local economy. Further, developing the contaminated land as a renewable facility is one of the safest ways to use the land that’s been sealed off from the public for nearly a decade.
Elon’s Image
The proposal isn’t without its critics. Local opposition was voiced during community consultations, with most of the negative sentiment directed towards Elon rather than the facility itself. Despite these complaints, the local council elected to proceed, arguing that tangible economic and environmental benefits far outweigh any perceived geopolitical or symbolic harm that shutting down the project could cause.
With the council’s endorsement on record, the proposal now moves to the South Australian state government for approvals regarding the change in land classification.
Tesla’s software updates often hide some undocumented features alongside the official release notes, and software update 2025.20 is no exception. With this update, Tesla has introduced a welcome quality-of-life improvement for the in-vehicle Dashcam Viewer. Users now have the ability to select and delete multiple clips at once (thanks, Max!). However, this addition is limited to the updated Dashcam Viewer for Ryzen-based vehicles.
While it may seem a small change, if you wanted to clear out your Dashcam clips, you’d have to either delete them one by one in the vehicle or remove your Dashcam USB drive and take it to a computer to erase all the clips at once. For those who frequently see Sentry Mode notifications or often record clips with their Dashcam, this is a useful addition.
This feature is currently limited to vehicles that have received the updated Dashcam viewer - which means vehicles equipped with AMD Ryzen processors (how to tell if you have Intel or AMD). This includes all Model 3 and Model Y vehicles with AMD Ryzen, as well as the 2021+ Model S and Model X vehicles.
Unfortunately, since the Cybertruck does not yet have access to the updated Dashcam viewer or support for the additional two cameras in Sentry Mode, it has not received this feature yet either.
This undocumented feature is a very welcomed addition for many users who carefully manage their Dashcam and Sentry Mode videos.
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