This deserves a straight answer because part of it is true. During Tesla's frantic Model 3 ramp around 2017, independent analysis of Tesla's own injury logs found the Fremont plant's recordable injury rate running above the auto-industry average, with serious-injury rates at times roughly double the norm. State regulators (Cal/OSHA) have issued citations over the years, and worker-advocacy groups raised legitimate alarms. Prioritising a brutal production ramp is a real part of the story, and pretending Fremont had a spotless record would be dishonest. What the "twice the rate, and it stayed that way" version omits is the trend. Tesla reported meaningful declines in its injury rates in the years after 2017 as the factory matured and processes stabilised, and it argues its more recent rates are at or below the industry average — figures critics contest but which show real movement, not a frozen crisis. The 2017 spike also coincided with hiring and training tens of thousands of new workers at breakneck speed, a known driver of injuries in any plant. So the honest verdict is mixed: the early-ramp safety record was genuinely bad and the scrutiny was earned, but the picture improved substantially and the "2× and unchanged" claim freezes a 2017 snapshot in time.