{"id":6721,"date":"2022-04-15T14:32:41","date_gmt":"2022-04-15T14:32:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/?p=6721"},"modified":"2023-03-27T15:59:12","modified_gmt":"2023-03-27T15:59:12","slug":"how-elon-musk-and-his-trolls-attacked-a-duke-professor-on-twitter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2022\/04\/15\/how-elon-musk-and-his-trolls-attacked-a-duke-professor-on-twitter\/","title":{"rendered":"How Elon Musk and his trolls attacked a Duke professor on Twitter"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is not unusual for Tesla CEO Elon Musk to tweet 30 times a day. Twitter is his marketing platform, his customer service hub and, unfortunately for his opponents, his battleground. (And now, he is <\/span>seeking to buy it<\/span><\/a>.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Last October, Musk used Twitter to target Missy Cummings, a Duke University professor and automation expert. \u201cObjectively, her track record is extremely biased against Tesla,\u201d <\/span>he tweeted<\/span><\/a> in response to one of his fans.<\/span><\/p>\n

Those 9 words \u2013 just the latest in an ongoing disagreement between two outsized personalities in the booming field of automation \u2013 unleashed a fury.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Musk’s tweet mobilized an army of virtual trolls that attacked Cummings, who initially responded with grace. \u201c\u200b\u200bHappy to sit down and talk with you anytime,\u201d she tweeted back to Musk. This only enraged the trolls further, who smeared her online. And two days later, overwhelmed by the sheer amount of online harassment, Cummings deleted her Twitter account, stopped all public commentary and for the next few months largely went silent online.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is the tale of that feud, which represents two distinct viewpoints about the technology behind the nation’s most popular electric car. The feud continues to simmer in different corners of social media, and will likely boil over in new ways in the future, especially if Musk succeeds with the Twitter takeover and his promise to make his favorite battlefield <\/span>\u201cbroadly inclusive.\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This account is based on the tweets and public statements made by the many parties involved, a Change.org petition, LinkedIn posts by Cummings, and the syllabus she used for her Duke engineering course at the time of the tumult on Twitter. Cummings declined to comment to The 9th Street Journal. Neither Tesla nor Musk responded to requests.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Killer robots\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n

The online feud traces back to at least 2017 when Cummings, a widely known former Navy pilot who became a professor in Duke\u2019s Pratt School of Engineering, began <\/span>tweeting her concerns<\/span><\/a> about Tesla\u2019s highly automated cars, saying that they were \u201ckilling people,\u201d among other criticisms.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes she was clinical, tweeting that Tesla’s autopilot technology gave drivers “mode confusion.” Other times she was blunt, saying that Tesla\u2019s \u201ckiller robots\u201d are so dangerous her students who tested them in the lab should \u201cget hazardous duty pay.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On occasion, she got personal toward Musk. Cummings went as far as posting a GIF of a woman knocking a man out of his chair with a single punch, suggesting she might do the same to Musk.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cummings has since deleted and <\/span>apologized for that tweet<\/span><\/a>. \u201cI was trying to make an admittedly bad joke that I would pull no punches if in a conversation with Elon Musk,\u201d she posted in February. She clarified that she loves Tesla as a company and believes electric cars are the future, but feels obligated to voice the safety concerns she has with an automation system that is \u201cterribly flawed.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The apology apparently didn\u2019t do much to mend her relationship with Musk or his fervent supporters.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Musk’s tweet inspired his supporters to begin attacking Missy Cummings.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When President Biden appointed Cummings to be a senior advisor for safety at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on Oct. 19, Tesla supporters immediately took to Twitter to air their grievances, however profane and inappropriate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Insults were hurled at Cummings calling her \u201canti-American,\u201d a \u201ctacky, petty woman,\u201d an \u201cobnoxious female\u201d and a \u201cb*tt hurt old woman.\u201d One since-removed tweet responded to the news of Cummings\u2019s appointment by saying: \u201cIf they try and take Autopilot (Tesla\u2019s automated driving system) away from us we will riot so hard January 6 will look like a day at Disneyland.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A handful of users voiced their support for Cummings online, saying, \u201cMissy, I\u2019m sorry this is happening. I support you!\u201d or \u201cthank you for your service Missy.\u201d The Naturalistic Decision Making Association, an organization that helps clients navigate high-stakes decision-making, <\/span>issued a statement<\/span><\/a> acknowledging its support of Cummings. But these voices were far outnumbered.<\/span><\/p>\n

Following her appointment, Cummings refrained from responding to the trolls. She was still directing research at Duke\u2019s Humans and Autonomy Lab, which focuses on the interactions between humans and computers with autonomous features. (The lab\u2019s acronym is HAL, a nod to <\/span>the evil computer<\/span><\/a> in one of <\/span>Cummings\u2019s favorite films<\/span><\/a>, \u201c2001: A Space Odyssey.\u201d)<\/span><\/p>\n

No stranger to stress<\/b><\/p>\n

During the Twitter battle, she was teaching a class at Duke\u2019s engineering school called The Human Element in Cyber Security, lecturing her undergraduate students about cybersecurity breaches. On the last page of her <\/span>class syllabus<\/span><\/a>, Cummings pasted a link to a list of Duke resources meant to help students who are experiencing \u201ca range of issues that could pose a challenge to learning\u201d including anxiety, stress and feeling down.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cummings is no stranger to stress. Her interests put her in situations where she has to regularly contemplate <\/span>life or death scenarios<\/span><\/a>. She\u2019s also no stranger to sexism, or to being challenged by powerful men.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the Navy, men went out of their way to make Cummings\u2019s life difficult. \u201cI saw all the problems that come around with being one of a minority that\u2019s trying to break into a majority,\u201d she said in a <\/span>podcast interview<\/span><\/a> with Forward Thinking. One of her call names, nicknames given to aviators, was Medusa, a formidable woman in Greek mythology.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cummings pivoted to a new career path. Her interest in preventing plane crashes led her to space systems engineering and eventually to Duke, where she focused on operator trust of autonomous systems and simulating unmanned robotic environments. The common thread: safety.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The trolls<\/b><\/p>\n

Cummings has seen what can happen when there is miscommunication between human and machine. It\u2019s what compels her to speak out against Tesla. Her main gripe is <\/span>not with Musk<\/span><\/a>, it\u2019s with his refusal to incorporate a particular safety technology, LiDAR, into Tesla\u2019s automation system.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

LiDAR is a radar system that uses lasers to measure the distance between a sensor and surrounding objects. Cummings believes LiDAR is crucial for self-driving cars to accurately make sense of their surroundings. But Musk disagrees, <\/span>calling the system<\/span><\/a> \u201ca fool\u2019s errand.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, Cummings called him out.<\/span><\/p>\n

The trolls responded right away. The day after her NHTSA appointment, one ventured beyond Twitter to create a petition on Change.org that called on the Biden administration to reconsider its appointment of Cummings to NHTSA due to \u201cviolation of agency guidelines and ethical principles concerning conflict of interest and bias.\u201d It cited Cummings\u2019s role on the board of directors at Veoneer, a Swedish automation company in competition with Tesla (<\/span>she has since resigned<\/span><\/a>); the unproven charge that she was a member of TSLAQ, an online collective of Tesla critics; and her public statements.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Written under the moniker \u201cAutopilot Users for Progress,\u201d the petition gained over 30,000 signatures in 48 hours before Change.org took it down due to \u201cdefamatory\u201d content. The tweets however, continued to flood in, and on Oct. 21, Cummings deleted her Twitter account.<\/span><\/p>\n

This measure, though drastic, did little to tame the trolls. They continue to harass Cummings on Twitter, even if she may never see it. Some found her personal email and began to send her threats privately. The emails prompted Cummings, who had declined to comment on the attacks, to break her silence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018In case anything happens to me\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n

Two months ago, on her LinkedIn page, <\/span>Cummings posted screenshots<\/span><\/a> of threatening messages she\u2019s received \u201cso that there is a traceable and public record in case anything happens to me.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The use of words like \u201cconsequences\u201d and \u201ckarma\u201d in these messages are what scares Cummings, she said. \u201cI am increasingly concerned about my personal safety around people who clearly are not capable of rational and reasoned thinking,\u201d she posted.<\/span><\/p>\n

One person suggested on LinkedIn that Cummings seek protection from the university, but Cummings responded \u201cunfortunately Duke has not been supportive, they are afraid of controversy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Michael Schoenfeld, Duke\u2019s vice president for public affairs and government relations, declined to comment on her critical LinkedIn post.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cummings also wrote, \u201cwhen women say they are afraid for their physical #safety, especially those of us who are public facing, they need to be believed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Photos at top: Missy Cummings –\u00a0 Duke University; Elon Musk \u2013 Wikimedia Commons\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is not unusual for Tesla CEO Elon Musk to tweet 30 times a day. 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