Elon Musk’s latest madness: his autopilot predictions may be deepfakes

Tesla lawyers are trying at all costs to avoid Elon Musk’s claims about the reliability of Autopilot being used as evidence against him in a lawsuit related to the fatal accident with the Model X that occurred in 2018. His excuse? Claiming that the words spoken by the mogul could be the result of a deepfake.

The company’s legal team, in particular, notes that Musk does not remember the autopilot safety statement in 2016. In them, he said that “Model S and Model X can now autonomously drive more safely than a person. Right now”.

Later they claim that The leader is the target of deepfakes that try to distort his speech in some way.. “Like many public figures, [Elon Musk] is the subject of many “deepfake” videos and audio recordings that are intended to show him saying and doing things that he never said or actually did,” Tesla’s lawyers detailed as an argument to prevent Musk from testifying in court . Reuters.

The lawsuit in which Elon Musk could testify is related to a lawsuit filed by relatives of Walter Huang in 2019. Huang, Apple engineer He died in 2018 due to an accident with his Model X. His parents claim that he had the autopilot on, but it didn’t work properly.

That same year, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) confirmed that Huang did not keep his hands on the steering wheel six seconds before the accident. All this, in addition, despite the fact that the system sent several warnings to the driver. However, the plaintiffs allege that the tycoon made various claims regarding Autopilot’s achievements. Among them is that “the vehicle drives itself” or the aforementioned.

Tesla’s arguments about Elon Musk’s expulsion are ‘deeply disturbing’

Judge Evett Pennypacker of the Santa Clara County Superior Court, who heard statements from Tesla’s attorneys, He called the arguments “deeply disturbing”.

“Their position is that because Mr. Musk is well-known and can be a target for deepfakes, his public statements are immune,” Pennypacker said.

The judge also argues that with these arguments, any famous person could say what he wanted. And during a trial or something similar, claiming that they are fake-generated statements “to avoid appropriating what they actually said and did.”