back to article Musk tried to wriggle out of Autopilot grilling by claiming past boasts may be deepfakes

Tesla CEO Elon Musk may face a deposition in a civil lawsuit over a death allegedly caused by Autopilot – after a judge rejected arguments made by the billionaire's lawyers. The legal eagles attempted [PDF] to convince Judge Evette Pennypacker that lawyers representing the family of slain Tesla owner Walter Huang shouldn't be …

  1. The Man Who Fell To Earth Silver badge
    Boffin

    All you need to know about Musk

    As told by William Shatner.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gy5P45hEN4

    1. Martin Gregorie

      Re: All you need to know about Musk

      The lawyers seem the have got there first: this video 'is not available in your country'.

      1. 897241021271418289475167044396734464892349863592355648549963125148587659264921474689457046465304467

        Re: All you need to know about Musk

        https://www.facebook.com/thedailyshow/videos/the-daily-showography-of-elon-musk-visionary-futureman/491282749475966/

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: All you need to know about Musk

        Now you know why I have a VPN package installed. Frankly, IMHO everyone should finally stop with this 20th century region limiting crap.

        1. IGotOut Silver badge

          Re: All you need to know about Musk

          It's because of lazy, ignorant, incompetent or greedy website owners that can't grasp the most basic concept of data privacy.

          I usually go for greed.

        2. msknight

          Re: All you need to know about Musk

          Agreed. It's utterly bonkers. Even Jamie Oliver just released a video on youtube for Sweet potato & Sweetcorn platter and, guess what, not available in your country. I'm in the UK, he's a UK chef, operating in the UK... so why is it unavailable? Utterly senseless IMHO.

          1. MachDiamond Silver badge

            Re: All you need to know about Musk

            "I'm in the UK, he's a UK chef, operating in the UK... so why is it unavailable?"

            You are trying to do it the 'legal' way. If you knew a few good bittorrent sites or even just had a subscription to a usenet site, chances are good you'd get all of the Jamie Oliver that you want.

            1. msknight

              Re: All you need to know about Musk

              It's the "legal way" that's in question. Why are things being restricted in this manner in the first place. I mean, I can understand some things due to some licensing and funding considerations, but this Jamie Oliver video (and others like it) beggar belief.

              1. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                Re: All you need to know about Musk

                Oh, it hasn't made sense for years. I used to travel a lot, and bought the occasional DVD to watch in the hotel. You quickly learn that the only DVD worth buying is a pirated one because the official one will not play when you get back home which to me seemed to rather disembowel the original arguments for region limiting.

                Now you have streaming services, but as soon as you move from your home country you suddenly find that English subtitles become optional or unavailable (real fun if you have impaired hearing) - Netfix, for instance, will happily inflict this on you and there's no arguing with it unless you spend extra money and effort in keeping a VPN going.

                The net result is that all those "follow my rule, ye peasant" outfits no longer get my money. Ironically, it is as if only pirates actually listen to their customers..

            2. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

              Re: All you need to know about Musk

              chances are good you'd get all of the Jamie Oliver that you want

              Just as well i don't need to pay for anything to get the amount of JO that I want.. (As you can tell, I'm not a fan. He's undoubtedly a good chef but his recipes are (to my mind) fussy, overcomplicated and more performance orientated than food orientated. I am, however, a fan of Gennaro Contaldo..)

          2. fpx
            Boffin

            Re: All you need to know about Musk

            It's all about the ads. It's about the license holder selling advertisements in certain regions only. Viewers outside the region don't count into their ad revenue and thus must be denied.

      3. steviebuk Silver badge

        Re: All you need to know about Musk

        I used a VPN to pretend I'm in America which worked. Grab yt-dlp and then you can download it.

      4. zuckzuckgo Silver badge

        Re: All you need to know about Musk

        Audio worked here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0SrC9eJpMNUmF6cFo0xauw

  2. Howard Sway Silver badge

    Musk tried to wriggle out of Autopilot grilling by claiming past boasts may be deepfakes

    Coming next week : this video of me announcing that I have offered to buy Twitter must have been made on someone's computer, because I can't personally remember saying that. Reality is, after all, only what I, Lord Musk perceive it to be at any given moment.

  3. aerogems Silver badge

    I get that the job of a lawyer is to provide a robust defense for their client, but when this is walking the line of sanctionable bullshit IMO. Unless they had some kind of evidence to back up their assertion, it's sort of like hearing a duck quack, seeing duck footprints on the ground, and seeing a duck-like shape on the pond, but then claiming it was a walrus deepfaked as a duck.

    In some respects, I suppose this was always inevitable. Ever since Trump started hiring kool-aid drinkers when he couldn't accept that he lost in 2020, Twitler has adopted the same strategy. Instead of hiring competent lawyers who are dispassionate third parties who don't really care about the outcome, he goes out and finds idiots who are enthralled by his cult of personality and are willing to sacrifice their professional careers on the alter of his ego by pulling shit like this which will not likely endear them to many judges.

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Lawyers are disinterested to the extent that they'll just as readily represent you or your opponent providing their fees are being paid. They may also advise you as tot he strength or weakness of your case but when it gets to court the case they put will be the case they've been briefed to put. Privately they may believe it or believe it to be all bollox but they'll put it to the court to the best of their ability and with a straight face.

      1. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge

        providing their fees are being paid.

        Probably the only class of Musk's creditors who can expect to be paid in full. He needs them more than they do him, though he does provide them with lucrative gigs

        1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          I'd guess they demand money in advance. Suing for the fee would just be throwing good money after bad.

        2. Strahd Ivarius Silver badge
          Facepalm

          There are so many lawyers in the USA (more than plumbers) that he can say that he doesn't remember hiring them and find new suckers when he needs them...

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            > There are so many lawyers in the USA (more than plumbers)

            Well US lawyers don't just have to deal with crap, they are a major source.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Tough one this

    Electric Jesus is a lying, over-promising and underdelivering sack of sh*t in my opinion. However this supposedly intelligent person did their very best to take themselves out of the gene pool. Hard to know who to deride the most.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Tough one this

      I like "Electric Jezus", thanks :).

      1. zuckzuckgo Silver badge

        Re: "Electric Jezus",

        ♪ ♫ Always look on the bright side of life - te-do -- te-do, te-do .... ♫

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHPOzQzk9Qo

  5. Orv Silver badge

    This seems unlikely to work. Folding your arms and saying, "yeah, but can you PROVE it?" is rarely a good strategy in civil court, where juries can rule on just a preponderance of the evidence.

    1. Jonathon Green

      “This seems unlikely to work. Folding your arms and saying, "yeah, but can you PROVE it?"

      The legal equivalent of folding your arms and engaging autopilot in your Muskmobile at 80MPH?

  6. Kev99 Silver badge

    Anyone who believe a Tesla is a true autonomous vehicle should have their license revoke, vehicle impounded, and be force to ride in a taxi.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Or, hear me out, they should be given a Tesla.

      Problem will gradually solve itself.

      (Just need to figure out how to avoid collateral damage)

      1. lglethal Silver badge
        Trollface

        (Just need to figure out how to avoid collateral damage)

        I've got it!!! Place a large block of concrete on the side of the road, place a plastic model of a Fire Engine or Police Car over the top of the concrete block. Nature (or in this case the Tesla Autopilot) will take care of itself. The Tesla's built-in auto-homing instinct will send it crashing into the Fire Engine/Police Car at the first available opportunity...

        Truly a use case for a Plastic Policeman...

    2. MachDiamond Silver badge

      "Anyone who believe a Tesla is a true autonomous vehicle should have their license revoke, vehicle impounded, and be force to ride in a taxi."

      The trouble is that the "driver assistance" features work pretty well, right up to the point where they don't. It has been reported that the person had several incidents at the accident location where the car threatened to do what it did. The time when the car did drive into the gore point he wasn't paying attention. I'm not absolving Elon of his boosting as contributory, but the driver does share in some of the blame. It might do for Tesla to actually do some advertising and point out the limitations of their software rather than just allow the fanboi crowd to go on and on about things the cars aren't capable of doing consistently and safely no matter how many videos they put out.

      1. Erik Beall

        Yes, this! The line "it works great until it doesn't." I use it often when clients want to use neural networks is any kind. They're great for many use cases, deceptively and potentially existentially risky for a great many others.

      2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        "Tesla to actually do some advertising and point out the limitations of their software"

        It'd be nice to see the court dish that out as part of the punishment, assuming Tesla lose. With the court having a veto on the adverts Tesla produce, ie there must be NO "spin" only the unvarnished "truth in advertising" :-)

    3. Richard 12 Silver badge

      Anyone believing that

      Has been told so by Tesla and Musk.

      I think that's the crux of the case, really.

      Tesla and/or Musk have been making a lot of claims - including the actual marketed name of the features - that it simply does not do.

      "Autopilot", "Full Self Driving", etc.

      If we accept that marketing works at all, then there will be a lot of people who sincerely believe these claims.

      Where was the "Not a flying toy" voice-over?

    4. GruntyMcPugh Silver badge

      Well, that did happen in 2018, in the UK: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-43934504

      But this of course adds fuel to the argument made against Tesla, that many people thought the system was more capable than it actually was, and then we have to ask how they formed that opinion.

    5. Strahd Ivarius Silver badge
      Devil

      a Waymo taxi?

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What's next?

    The big boys made me do it

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: What's next?

      Then they ran away….

  8. DS999 Silver badge
    Thumb Down

    What a scumbag

    He knows he's cooked when Autopilot can't live up to its promises even seven years later, so he's trying out some wild theories. All the contemporaneous discussion on Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, etc. at the time he made those statements make that a fool's errand, since the tech for such deepfakes didn't exist in 2016 AND he had plenty of time to correct the record if he saw discussions about statements he never made.

  9. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
    Joke

    The Dog ate my homework

    A young Elon Musk

    1. IGotOut Silver badge

      Re: The Dog ate my homework

      That's actually next month's defence.

      1. TRT Silver badge

        Re: The Dog ate my homework

        Better than that time the class was set work over the vacation; "I want you to design a robot."

        That was nasty... the invoice from the vet was a shocker, not to mention the cleaning bill.

  10. Claptrap314 Silver badge

    Ackswually

    We're really close to this defense being airtight. Chain of custody is not enough. You need to demonstrate origin, and that is impossible.

    Unfortunately that it's Musk pushing it first, and this early.

    1. Falmari Silver badge

      Re: Ackswually

      @Claptrap314 "Chain of custody is not enough. You need to demonstrate origin, and that is impossible." +1

      Origins was exactly what Tesla's lawyers asked for but did not get.

      "Additionally, though Plaintiffs make no mention of it, before Tesla provided its post-Order responses, it requested detailed information about the origins 0f the recordings from Plaintiffs, as permitted by C.C.P. § 2033.060(g,) because such information might be helpful in determining whether they are authentic. (See Miller Decl. 11 11; Exhibit E.) Plaintiffs ignored Tesla’s request."

      But I am not sure if it would be impossible, they could find the original source of a recording and obtain the original. But impossible or not because they did not provide origins so they are just a lot of unauthenticated videos downloaded off the internet and it is not Tesla's job to authenticate them.

  11. MachDiamond Silver badge

    Master of outlandish statements

    Elon spots off all of the time about anything and everything to garner attention. Is it a disease of people with money that they believe they are qualified to publicly comment on all topics? I'll admit to a certain level of loudmouthism, but there are topics I know I have no clue about. I say this as it would be hard for somebody to make deepfakes of Elon uttering complete tripe as Elon does it so often himself that it's not worth the effort vs just doing a quick scan of YouTube and finding the clip you need.

    1. aerogems Silver badge

      Re: Master of outlandish statements

      It's not a money related disease, it's called narcissism. Something that seems to be more prevalent in people with money. Maybe it's because narcissists can be quite charming when they want something from you, or maybe it's because when you have a lot of money there's never a shortage of people willing to lick your taint to get some of your money, or maybe it's a little column A little column B. In any event, it's a rare person who doesn't end up believing their own bullshit. Twitler has managed to claim credit for other people's work so long that he now believes he's some kind of uber genius, when really it's pretty obvious to see he knows jack all about basically anything except being a conman.

      Case in point, his total inability to answer some really basic questions and resorting to personal attacks.

      https://news.yahoo.com/flustered-elon-musk-flips-jackass-210802495.html

  12. Mitoo Bobsworth

    He LOVES the attention

    until accountability starts having a good, hard look.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: He LOVES the attention

      Just like his master Donald J Trump

      Musk is a glorified conman. How many Tesla Roasdter 2's did he [cough][cough] give away through the referrals program? Some cult members are owed 2 of the most likely never to be produced vehicle.

      The UK branch of the cult was out in force at Fully Charged, Farnborough today. Sadly stands like Genesis, BYD, Ora and KIA were far busier than Tesla. That was reflected in the numbers going for test drives.

      1. MachDiamond Silver badge

        Re: He LOVES the attention

        "The UK branch of the cult was out in force at Fully Charged, Farnborough today. Sadly stands like Genesis, BYD, Ora and KIA were far busier than Tesla. That was reflected in the numbers going for test drives."

        All of those other makers have new and different cars on offer. Tesla has just two mainstream cars and they've been out for some time now. There's also not much to see with them as they've used a very spartan approach to their interior design. I've seen some reports on Ora and they have some low cost offerings in China that are low on features and price, but still have all of the basics well covered. There's a reversing camera, power windows and fast charging. They've skipped things like a glass roof and folding wing mirrors. You also have to manually open the cover on the charge port.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Once Lord Musk is ruler of Mars Inc [TM]

    He will be immune from your puny Earthling rules and laws.

    Bwaaahahahahahaaaaa

    1. parlei Bronze badge

      Re: Once Lord Musk is ruler of Mars Inc [TM]

      How is the project "send Elon on a one way trip to Mars" going? This really need to become a priority.

      1. LogicGate Silver badge

        Re: Once Lord Musk is ruler of Mars Inc [TM]

        FAA has brought it to a temporary halt.

        But do not worry, even Mr. Musk himself is working hard at rectifying issues, so we may be able to wish "Bon voyage" at some point in the forseeable future.

        1. Joe W Silver badge

          Re: Once Lord Musk is ruler of Mars Inc [TM]

          I'm grateful that http (the whole of TCP in fact) will not work - or has that been changed? I recall there was a comment in the Linux kernel sources...

        2. CowHorseFrog Silver badge

          Re: Once Lord Musk is ruler of Mars Inc [TM]

          That tells you something , he hasnt even lied about a date for him to leave Earth for a few hours or ever.

          At least Jeff and his brother went up. Space is just another bullshit for Musk to suck more US gov grants.

          1. MachDiamond Silver badge

            Re: Once Lord Musk is ruler of Mars Inc [TM]

            "At least Jeff and his brother went up."

            Sir Richard risked his life on his contraption as well beating Jeff to space (Technically, SRB didn't make it to space).

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Once Lord Musk is ruler of Mars Inc [TM]

        They're still working on the deepfake of the working rocket.

        After all, it doesn't need to actually get there, he just needs to believe that it will.

        1. LogicGate Silver badge

          Re: Once Lord Musk is ruler of Mars Inc [TM]

          That is one thing that I can happily refute.

          SpaceX does not deepfake. Unlike various national space organisations (especially the RuZZians, SpaceX does not deepfake or present a pre-rendered animation of a nominal flight (While the tracking dats shows the actual rocket doing it's best to reenact being a 1960's lawn-dart). Instead SpaceX publishes the rocket performing an earth-shattering Kaboom in realtime, with multiple camera views and a presenter that only needs 30 seconds before he is allowed to inform us that something did not go nominally.

          THIS. IS. REFRESHING.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Once Lord Musk is ruler of Mars Inc [TM]

            That's only because it's kinda hard to fake a rocket going up plus the subsequent earth shattering kaboom.

            I fully trust Musk to fake something if he could get away with it.

            As for pre-rendered, it may be helpful to remember that once a rocket has cleared the atmosphere and isn't heading for something orbital with a camera it'll be kinda boring to watch without an animation as you'll simply be looking at some clouds..

            1. LogicGate Silver badge

              Re: Once Lord Musk is ruler of Mars Inc [TM]

              Here:

              Compare this with a SpaceX launch: https://youtu.be/c0l5QBmqQoI.

              Notice how the animation including telemetry continues to run nominal well after the flight was terminated at 3:48.

              While Musk is a deeply flawed person (medical condition?), and the deepfake excuse was a silly one, SpaceX has been a game-changer in many ways, and Mrs. Shotwell has been doing an amazing job.

              One can distain one without dissing the other.

              1. MachDiamond Silver badge

                Re: Once Lord Musk is ruler of Mars Inc [TM]

                "Mrs. Shotwell has been doing an amazing job."

                There's some video compilations showing Ms. Shotwell making statements about timelines and prices that are hard to believe and have never come to pass. She was very adamant that point-to-point rocket travel was going to be a thing. It won't. The question is whether she believes all of this or is towing the line for Elon to keep her very well compensated position as "head" of the company.

        2. MachDiamond Silver badge

          Re: Once Lord Musk is ruler of Mars Inc [TM]

          "They're still working on the deepfake of the working rocket."

          Oh, they are way past the CGI phase of development on the ITS/BFR/Starship thing. The CGI stuff is really nice and smooth. The real life version looks more crinkly. Maybe they need to do some new CGI videos using a crinkly patchwork looking rocket to match what's been built thus far.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Once Lord Musk is ruler of Mars Inc [TM]

        They will get him to push the next rocket. Once the landing pad is repaired, that is.

      4. MachDiamond Silver badge

        Re: Once Lord Musk is ruler of Mars Inc [TM]

        "How is the project "send Elon on a one way trip to Mars" going? This really need to become a priority."

        That's going to take 8-9 launches to send up the manned section and all of the fuel tankers. He'll need a few supplies too so add another 30 or 40 total launches for those. It might be a while before we are wishing him a Bon Voyage.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Once Lord Musk is ruler of Mars Inc [TM]

          Only if you assume the aim is to actually get him there..

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Musk may have forgotten

    But the Internet never forgets.

    1. MachDiamond Silver badge

      Re: Musk may have forgotten

      "But the Internet never forgets."

      That's good and bad. When something has been disproven and discredited, the verbiage surrounding it lives on forever and people keep finding it without also finding it wasn't good information/A lie. If you get arrested for GTA by mistake, that lives on forever too. It wouldn't be so bad if the record of your exoneration was clipped to that report, but it isn't. The two documents live in different places and big data companies are under no requirement to make sure that they have and include all information when they sell somebody such as a prospective employer, your profile.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I guess the alternative wouldn’t fly?

    “I can’t remember all the things I said because I smoke too much pot”.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I guess the alternative wouldn’t fly?

      That would actually be a good one to drop in by the other party to strip even more of his credibility than he has managed already by himself..

  16. hammarbtyp

    The brave new world

    My dog Someones A.I. did it

  17. trevorde Silver badge

    Next excuse

    It was my evil, twin brother

    1. TRT Silver badge

      Re: Next excuse

      My evil clone from the future.

      1. MachDiamond Silver badge

        Re: Next excuse

        It wasn't me. It was a one-armed man.

  18. wolfetone Silver badge

    What a Twat

    See title.

  19. CowHorseFrog Silver badge

    Typical American leadership, lie to the very end, but they are always first to pay themselves.

  20. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Musk is deposed

    Is it just me that kept reading that phrase in a different context to that intended?

  21. nojobhopes

    What's in a name?

    If you call it Autopilot, someone might expect it to be an autopilot. Dangerous name.

    1. MachDiamond Silver badge

      Re: What's in a name?

      "If you call it Autopilot, someone might expect it to be an autopilot. Dangerous name.

      Technically, calling it autopilot is pretty close to reality. Autopilots in aircraft often do little more than keep the plane headed in the correct direction as well as maintain speed and altitude. The problem is that most people that aren't pilots define autopilot as something more akin to Level 5 autonomy. If you could file a flight plan and have an aircraft taxi out, take off, fly and then land at the destination airport while taking all course corrections from ATC, that would align with what people think it is. Perhaps at some point that will be a reality, but there will be many airplanes flying through dangerous thunderstorms before they work out most of the bugs. Maybe ground operations will be safer, but only up to the point where something in the system fails and everybody has to disembark the aircraft to be ferried back to the terminal in buses until it's all sorted. If it lasts too long, somebody may have to tow the aircraft back to the gates so luggage can be retrieved. Having pilots onboard and somebody in the control tower directing traffic is much more flexible.

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