Elon Musk emails show empathy for father of teen who died in Tesla Model S crash
Elon Musk emailed for weeks with the father of a teen who died in a fiery Tesla crash and helped to update a speed-limiting safety feature at the grieving man’s request, court records show. Emails between the Tesla chief executive officer and the father spanning nearly seven weeks four years ago offer a rare glimpse into Musk’s personal involvement in customer relations around a horrific accident.
Barrett Riley was at the wheel of his father’s Tesla Model S on May 8, 2018, when he lost control at 116 miles per hour and crashed into a concrete wall of a house in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The car was engulfed in flames. Riley and his friend sitting in the passenger seat were both killed.
About 24 hours later, Musk emailed the father, James Riley. The electric-car maker’s CEO offered condolences and asked Riley if he’d like to talk. “There’s nothing worse than losing a child,” he wrote. James Riley replied that he’d like to take up the offer, but later wrote again to say that he and his wife weren’t quite ready to talk.
“I understand,” Musk responded. “My firstborn son died in my arms. I felt his last heartbeat, ” he wrote, referring to his son Nevada Alexander Musk who died when he was 10 weeks old.
The email exchange is contained in a court filing submitted this month in a wrongful death lawsuit involving a different Tesla crash. The lawyer in that case is trying to persuade a judge to order Musk to submit to questioning about Tesla’s Autopilot assisted-driving feature.
The emails with James Riley reveal a vulnerable, empathetic side of Musk, who has developed a reputation as a brazen Silicon Valley executive whose tweets to his more than 73 million followers can move Tesla’s stock price and often raise eyebrows.
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