Tesla’s only European factory, the Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg, was evacuated earlier today due to a major power outage, caused by a fire that damaged a power line tower. The incident is being investigated as an act of arson, something that is supported by the fact that a group has claimed responsibility for setting the fire, a group known as Vulkangruppe (Volcano Group).
The group appears to be an anti-capitalist extreme environmental group, and they don’t seem too fond of SUVs, either, especially Tesla ones. The eco-benefits of electric SUVs also don’t appear to be a compelling argument for them, at least based on what I could gather from their very long statement.
Honestly, it wouldn’t kill them to get one of their members to do some editing or at least get some more illustrations in that massive block of text. Oh, no one was hurt in the incident, it’s worth mentioning.
Der Ministerpräsdient schloss auch nicht aus, dass es sich um eine Form des Terrorismus handeln könnte. "Sollte sich der Verdacht erhärten, wird der Generalbundesanwalt die Ermittlungen übernehmen müssen", so #Woidke. #Tesla @Tesla_Berlin 2/3
— Staatskanzlei Brandenburg (@staatskanzleibb) March 5, 2024
The attack was condemned by Brandenburg’s Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke who said
“Attacks on our critical infrastructure are a form of terrorism,”
… and it is worth noting that the suspected arson did cause power outages not just to the factory, which was temporarily shut down, but also to parts of Berlin.
The Tesla Gigafctory has been the target of a number of environmental protests, with 80 to 100 protesters setting up camp in the forest by the factory since late February, an area that the factory may expand into.
In their statement, the Volcano Group gave their reasons, lots of reasons, but here’s just a taste as they claim responsibility:
We sabotaged Tesla today. Because Tesla in Grünau eats up earth, resources, people, labor and spits out 6,000 SUVs, killing machines and monster trucks per week. Our gift for March 8th is to shut down Tesla.
Because the complete destruction of the Gigafactory and with it the sawing off of “technofascists” like Elon Musk are a step on the path to liberation from patriarchy.
They also consider Tesla cars as surveillance devices, and weapons:
The totalitarian technological attack then looks like this. A Tesla vehicle is a surveillance device in public spaces. It is equipped with high-resolution cameras from Samsung all around. Samsung is a company that is a leader in weapons technology, among other things. According to the manufacturer, the cameras record up to 250 meters. In “guard mode” they film everything around the vehicle and guarantee that the driver is monitored even while driving. The driver is already a free, integral part of the Telsa universe and a guinea pig. The artificial intelligence will register every movement and every mistake of the driver and monetize it in order to train the autonomous driving software with the data.
Tesla is militarizing the streets. His moving tanks are weapons of war. The car as a weapon. The street the battlefield. Tesla has now released 856 hp instead of 9mm: “If you get into a fight with other cars, you will win,” says Elon Musk. A Tesla is a status symbol, statement and propaganda at the same time: for contempt for humanity, limitless destruction through “progress” and an imperial, patriarchal way of life.
The group also provided a good bit of detailed information about the logistics of how they committed the attack:
Our goal with our sabotage is to cause the largest possible blackout of the Gigafactory. We have ruled out endangering our lives and those of other people. The shutdown of production in the automotive industry is the beginning of the end of a world of destruction. Our bonfire of liberation was aimed at powering Tesla. We wanted to hit the overhead line of a high-voltage pylon in the connection to the underground cables at the waterproof cable sleeves and short-circuit the six 110 kV cables in it. To do this, we opened the shaft to the cable sleeves, which was half under water. We still flambéed power lines that were sticking out and, in combination with water, perhaps created a short circuit. Damage to cable joints is often time-consuming and expensive to repair. At the same time, we started the fire big and high with lots of car tires to weaken the steel structure and cause the mast to become unstable.
A steel mast only melts at around 1300 -1500 degrees. Since we were working with a heat generation of around 900 degrees, the aim was to change the mechanical properties of the mast. As a steel structure under load, a rapid, large fire from 500 degrees upwards can cause loss of strength and alter the metal’s stiffness, tensile strength and elasticity. This can lead to buckling effects, twisting or deflection. That was our intention.
That’s some helpful advice on setting steel power line towers on fire and getting them to collapse, I suppose. I’m glad they decided against doing anything that could endanger anyone’s life, but setting electrical infrastructure on fire isn’t helping anyone, anywhere. No point is being proven here, the damage is to facilities that are used by everyone in the area, not just the Tesla factory, and that fire could have spread and actually hurt people. A local source has told us that about 3,000 homes/60,000 residents in Berlin were without power, though power seems to be restored.
Factory operation is expected to remain stopped for the rest of the week, and repairs are estimated to be in the €100 million range, though how that number is divided between the Tesla factory and the local infrastructure isn’t clear.
Plus, don’t they know that this is just going to let Elon play a victim? Nobody’s opinion is being changed by this act. If you don’t like Tesla or Elon or SUVs or capitalism – and they may have some valid issues to complain about – setting power lines on fire isn’t going to magically make anything better, and if you do like any of those things, well, now you can enjoy the warm blanket of sympathy, I suppose.
I think the takeaway here is that setting public power infrastructure on fire is not a great way to make a point, and more concise manifestos would be appreciated.
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Hot giggity!
You really must love the environment to burn a pile of tires. I wonder if they used pressure treated lumber (dried, obviously) for kindling.
Damn, I guess Dale Gribble went to Germany.
Man, I do love me some highly educated maniacs doing pointless extremism! Complete with a rambling explanation of exactly how the did it. Let’s face it, we all secretly wish we had this kind of energy in our lives. I’ve given up on more than one autopian comment this week, and here they are, following their (strange and mostly pointless) wildest dreams. Tire fuel does melt steel beams!
Plus as a Millennial who grew up on FFVII, I know that eco-terrorism is the only cool kind of terrorism.
A more concise manifesto:
The needs of the natural world are more important than the needs of the economic system.
That’s it.
Just more useless cruelties perpetrated by frightened people in order to reassure themselves.
Nothing new here.
It looks like being the lesser enemy of the environment won’t save you from the wrath of environmental extremists.
I think it was this same group that claimed responsibility for setting some Tesla cars on fire a week or two back. I guess this environmental group is more okay with companies that make ICE cars.
First, “Volcano Group” sounds like like the sort of financial organization front that Dr. Evil would use. Maybe it sounds cooler in other languages or cultures but damn, for people demanding to be taken seriously, they could use a rebrand.
Second, I’m a pretty big fan of the environment, but not such a big fan of terrorists? Sooooo yeah, gonna be hard to get any level of support or sympathy from anyone who’s not a raving lunatic. Here’s hoping these obviously aimless people (the incoherent and unfocused ramblings aren’t a great sign) manage to wake up before they’re sitting in a prison cell eating their final pint of mint chocolate chip ice cream.
“You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”
Harvey Dent, Volcano GroupLiberty in the defense of extremism is not nice.
What next, bombing a nuclear power plant to demonstrate that they are unsafe and vulnerable to terrorism?
Germany shut down all of the nuclear power plants last year due to the irrational fear generated from the Fukushima nuclear screw-up.
The last time the nuclear power plants in Germany experienced the incident was in 1986 (about 38 years ago), and the incident was really, really, really minor and no danger to the people unlike Chernobyl. Germany doesn’t have the massive earthquake and tsunami as Japan does.
Ironically, the southern Germany ended up importing the electricity generated by the nuclear power plants in France. The Wutbürger (angry citizens) made use of NIMBY and the judicial process to prohibit the construction of high-voltage cable lines that would transmit the electricity from the northern to southern Germany.
I don’t think this is going to turn out the way they think it’s going to turn out.
Agreed people who ignore facts in favor of their perceived ignorance never works out.
Is it ironic that both these people and Musk have claimed at some point to be trying to “save the world” when they willfully endanger the lives of others in furtherance of their own agenda?
Horseshoe theory in action! Dingbats at the extreme of both sides winding up in the exact same, stupid place.
Maybe the real goal was to quiet 9/11 conspiracies. Their manifesto also manages to address the “jet fuel can’t melt steel beams” crowd:
Bless these brave souls. They finally proved that our crazies are truly crazy.
I was thinking that they are just going to end up selling more 911s but I was thinking Porsche and you were thinking nut jobs.
If I were clever, I’d come up with some joke about conspiracy theorists and Porsche drivers having a lot more overlap than expected, but I don’t think there’s any common perception of Porsche owners to support it.
Aren’t there some paintings they should be gluing their heads to right now?
Don’t Teslas set themselves on fire already?
It sounds like they have a lot of points to make beyond the environmental one, and it comes across really scattered and unfocused. I get it: war is shitty, companies wreck the environment for profit, the surveillance state is bad, heavier and larger vehicles are worse for pedestrians, and some other things.
But you really gotta pick like one or two things and make sure your actions are in line with those things. A big fire isn’t helping the environment or safety, and it’s only going to have some small chance to make a dent in surveillance and war efforts if your message resonates. Which this certainly doesn’t.
Trying to make the Pylon structurally unsafe, will only result in it being replaced by another steel structure. So they have actually created the need for more steel, and more mining just to undo their protest. The chemicals and environmental damage from burning tires, and power lines can’t be good for anyone either.
Yep. This is absolutely garbage as a protest in support of environmental efforts or safety. And it’s not effective as a war protest (because Samsung provides the cameras and builds weapons, they target a Samsung customer?). The surveillance aspect is the only one this might be a defensible protest of, and it would be a lot better if they targeted Tesla server farms in that case. This was not only unfocused, but actively detrimental to at least a couple of their causes.
And most of their arguments come across as incoherent rambling more than thought on criticisms of society. I recognize Google translate may not help this case, but using the argument of “His moving tanks are weapons of war.” is just baseless and bizarre.
Add to that the conspiracy theorist levels of grasping at straws, saying “well they have Samsung Cameras and Samsung makes weapons so Tesla vehicles are weapons of war” is just so out there. This really isn’t much more than an act of terrorism with a thin veneer of activism slathered on top.
I take the “moving tanks are weapons of war” as commentary on large vehicles being more dangerous for bicyclists, pedestrians, and those in small vehicles, but I’m also probably being generous, given how disparate their listed causes are. I do wonder if a proper translator would give a lot more insight into this.
But, yeah, they seem to be reaching in various directions to justify this, and that doesn’t help any of their professed causes, even if you could see a direct link from this fire to one specific cause.
That’s how I read it.
In the comments on arstechnica, someone said this area of Germany is really depressed and there are a ton of pissed off young people. So it’s likely the culprits are using a poorly-defined ecowarrior posture to channel their formless rage. Don’t expect much coherence.
That makes a lot of sense. If they just want to justify their rage, grasping at whatever causes they can connect makes sense.
Wouldn’t be the first time.
I like setting stuff on fire as much as the next guy, but this seems counterproductive.
I’ve been saying for years Tesla should have never built the Berlin Gigafactory. The German government practices a ton of protectionism when it comes to their domestic automakers (we do to0, and I hate it, along with it’s products like the chicken tax and the footprint rule).
For that matter Tesla should have never built the Shanghai Gigafactory either.
Takes a lot to get me to side with Tesla, but eco-terrorists have found a way to do it apparently
So… electric cars bad, burning tires good.
That’s a new environmentalist policy that I’m not sure is gonna catch on.
They should have piled up and lit themselves on fire instead, at least that would be more environmentally friendly and use a renewable energy source
reduce, REUSE, recycle.
Burning tires is hitting one of three. Close enough.
They reduced the number of used tires just sitting around, so that’s 2 out of 3!
No there are much better uses of used tires then killing people. In my humble opinion
Springfield was ahead of the curve with their tire fire
“Simpsons did it”
Nothing like saving the environment by starting an electrical fire in the most electrical-fire-place in town.
And burning tires that contaminated the environment and make people with poor immune system die.
.
I am sure anyone needing emergency service or electric service to run life saving equipment that dies will feel blessed to push the agenda.