Did Tesla remotely deactivate a Cybertruck in the midst of a freeway as a result of the proprietor featured it in an unauthorized music video? The story already appeared extremely unlikely, and on Monday afternoon, Tesla tweeted concerning the video, saying, “That is faux – that’s not our display. Tesla does NOT disable automobiles remotely.”
On Sunday, Instagram person @bighuey313 posted a video of his supposed deactivated Cybertruck, full with a flashing crimson warning message on the truck’s foremost touchscreen. “Canine wtf my cybertruck simply shut off on the freeway! 😡” he wrote within the caption. “Nearly simply crashed wtf @teslamotors.”
The proprietor additionally posted a picture of what he claimed was a cease-and-desist letter from Tesla’s vp of authorized affairs, Dinna Eskin. The letter cites “unauthorized use of Tesla’s mental property in musical content material distributed underneath your identify.”
The video shortly went viral on BlueSky, the place anti-Elon Musk sentiment has helped gasoline nationwide protests towards Tesla. However customers shortly seen quite a lot of discrepancies, akin to the truth that the letter opens “We signify Tesla” regardless of being signed by the corporate’s in-house counsel. The letter additionally makes use of Eskin’s outdated title, “Sr. Director and Deputy Common Counsel,” regardless of her present title of VP. And the warning message isn’t formatted like Tesla’s typical in-vehicle alerts and notifications. An X person speculated that the flashing crimson title was probably only a YouTube video enjoying on fullscreen to simulate a authentic error.
Regardless of these points, the video went viral on BlueSky, X, and Reddit — and sure will proceed to journey far and broad, confirming many individuals’s prior opinions about Tesla and Elon Musk.