Rich Benoit is not scared of Tesla interview podcast

Rich Benoit, taking apart
a Tesla battery.

YouTube

• Tesla has mandated that it alone can fix its cars, but
  one Massachusetts man doesn’t care about that.
• He buys salvaged Teslas and fixes them on his YouTube
  show, Rich
  Rebuilds.
• Business Insider interviewed him about why he’s not
  afraid of the company going after him for our podcast ‘Household Name.’

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Only Tesla can fix a broken Tesla. But Rich Benoit does not care
about that.

From his home in Massachusetts he fixes any Tesla “donor car” he
can buy and switches bad parts for good ones. He does this even
if the car has been flooded with
water, even if it’s mangled from an accident, even if it ”
looks like it rolled over 55
times.”

Even it’s shaped like
“rhombus.”

“Jesus Christ,” he said in a
recent episode of Business
Insider’s podcast ‘Household Name.’ “This is what $18,000
plus shipping looks like. The car is shaped like a rhombus. Seats
are destroyed.”

Benoit publishes his work on
YouTube, and his show is called ‘Rich Rebuilds.” Thanks to his
work he’s become something of a cult hero in the world of cars,
and even inside Tesla.

Among the engineers who have
painstakingly designed and manufactured the electric cars, he has
become a symbol of what they are (car nerds who love to tinker)
and what the company can be (something that survives beyond
them.)

“
I think what he’s doing is what’s going to
keep us alive,” said one Tesla engineer who requested anonymity
to be interviewed on the podcast. “
I think what Rich is doing is important for
Tesla… I don’t think it’s dangerous for Tesla at all… I
think if we stopped him, it would be a really big
mistake.”

Benoit thinks he’s found a
loophole that will let him continue to do his work without has
tle — a Massachusettes law that gives people the “right to
repair” their own property, and forces manufacturers to give them
access to tools and diagnostic software to do so.

But Benoit has asked Tesla for
help, and the company hasn declined. And the company has found
ways to skirt around the law. It says the customers should have
access to the same tools their dealers have, but Tesla is a
direct to consumer company. It has no dealerships.

“That loophole is interesting
because in Massachusetts Tesla actually did publish some repair
manuals, but they’re not very well written and they take you to
tell you how to take things apart, which was great,” Benoit said.
“But the major thing that we’re looking for is the
diagnostic 
software
to fix it.

“So if you repair a car that’s
one thing but you want to be able to troubleshoot issues with it.
And that’s the other thing you don’t give you access to you can
sign up for an account and you could try to sign into that
account, but they won’t give you access to the software unless
you’re a Tesla authorized repair shop. 
So loophole… after loophole…. after
loophole.”

Benoit says he loves and admires Tesla, and for right now the two
sides are at a stalemate. Benoit is on his own, and inside Tesla
there is a sense that what helps more than it helps — for now.

Hear the full episode here: 

If you are a Tesla employee or customer who has a story to share
about a car or experience with the company, give me a shout
at [email protected].