His full-bodied promises about the (supposed) capabilities of the Tesla-Autopilot bring CEO Elon Musk a lot of legal trouble for years. Now a court has ordered Musk to testify under oath. It is specifically about the fatal accident in 2018.
Walter Huang, a Appleengineer, had died in his Tesla accident at the time, apparently while his vehicle was on autopilot. According to media reports, Huang was distracted by his smartphone at the time of the accident. Huang’s family has argued for years that the driver believed Musk’s statements about the reliability of the autopilot. He therefore bears some responsibility for the accident.
Judge is “deeply concerned”
The focus is apparently on Musk’s statements that he made in a video about Tesla’s self-driving function. In the legal dispute, however, Tesla had suggested that the video might not have come from Musk. The Tesla boss could not remember any such statements. As a celebrity, he is often the target of deepfake attacks with deceptively real video fakes.
Judge Evette Pennypacker ordered a limited three-hour interrogation during which Musk could be asked whether he actually made the statements on the tapes, calling Tesla’s arguments “deeply disturbing.” She suspects that celebrities like Musk are trying to “evade responsibility for what they actually said and did.” In the video in question, the statement “The car drives itself” is said to have been made. The clip also demonstrates some features that didn’t exist at the time, the plaintiffs said, citing several Tesla engineers.
Deepfake clips are manipulated audio or video recordings in which artificial intelligence imitates a person’s face and voice. They are used, among other things, to spread false claims and to compromise celebrities with statements that they never actually said. So far, however, only a few cases with deceptively real deepfakes are known. The lawsuit is scheduled to be heard on July 31.