Tesla on Wednesday dropped a lawsuit against Alameda County that it had filed as a challenge to the county’s shelter-in-place order that forced the electric carmaker to cease vehicle production at its factory in Fremont for almost two months.
The dismissal was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
Tesla didn’t immediately return a request for further comment. But, the dismissal appeared to be the last piece in a truce between the company and the county that allowed Tesla to start building cars again in adherence with the county’s health and safety guidelines meant to contain the spread of coronavirus.
Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk tweeted on May 9 that the company was suing Alameda County for violation of due process for when in March, the county joined with several other Bay Area counties to enact shelter-in-place restrictions that closed many regional businesses. The county determined Tesla’s vehicle manufacturing operation didn’t qualify as an essential business and had to shut down. Tesla kept its factory running for nearly a week before stopping production on March 23.
However, by early May, Musk had had enough, and Tesla filed suit against Alameda County. In announcing the suit, Musk tweeted, “The unelected & ignorant “Interim Health Officer” of Alameda is acting contrary to the Governor, the President, our Constitutional freedoms & just plain common sense!”
Musk called the county’s measure “the final straw”, and threatened to move Tesla’s headquarters and vehicle manufacturing out of state. Prior to reaching an agreement with Alameda County, Musk last week tweeted that he would be on the assembly line with other Tesla workers, and volunteered to be arrested as the plant reopened in violation of the county’s shelter-in-place edict.
