Musk to Face Deposition in Lawsuit Over Fatal Autopilot Crash

Facts

• On Thursday, a California judge ordered a three-hour deposition of Tesla CEO Elon Musk to authenticate specific statements he reportedly made about Tesla's Autopilot feature in 2016.¹
• In a lawsuit brought by the family of Walter Huang — a Tesla 2017 Model X driver who died in a 2018 highway crash — the plaintiffs claim that Musk allegedly said Tesla's Model S and Model X could drive autonomously "with greater safety than a person."²
• Huang's lawyers argue that Tesla's Autopilot feature accelerated his car into a concrete barrier after misreading highway lane lines, despite Musk promoting the capabilities of the self-driving software.³
• However, Tesla's legal team cast doubt on the authenticity of Musk's statements about the Autopilot feature, claiming that the entrepreneur cannot recall the details of the speech and is the subject of many online "deepfake" videos and audio recordings.⁴
• While ordering the tentative deposition, Judge Evette Pennypacker termed Tesla's arguments "deeply troubling," noting that they would allow Musk and other famous people to avoid taking ownership of their public statements.⁵
• The ruling comes after a California state court jury last week found that Tesla wasn't responsible for a 2019 crash involving its partially automated driving software, Autopilot.⁶

Sources: ¹Bloomberg Law, ²Reuters, ³Business Insider, ⁴Sky News, ⁵The Telegraph, and ⁶ITN.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by New York Times. While promising in some industries, rapidly developing deepfake technology has become a well-known problem affecting the reliability of evidence and other information sources. Yes, Musk's lawyer's claims could be just legal shenanigans, but the billionaire himself has already been the victim of a deepfake in a scam that used his image to promote a fraudulent cryptocurrency.
• Narrative B, as provided by Above The Law. There is no doubt that deepfake technology represents a rising fraud threat and will soon become a battleground in the civil discovery process. However, Tesla's legal team's claim that Musk is a target for deepfakes — which is aimed at avoiding his deposition in this lawsuit — is ludicrous. This claim can only increase the importance of his testimony under oath.
• Narrative C, as provided by New York Times. Tesla can't deny the reality that there have been dozens of accidents — many deadly — involving its auto-assist system. From the name of the technology to the company's manipulative marketing practices, it's no wonder that so many drivers overestimate it. Musk must accept some responsibility.

Predictions