Elon Musk Likely Must Give Deposition in Fatal Tesla Autopilot Crash Suit
A California judge presiding over a wrongful death lawsuit against Tesla Inc. found it “deeply troubling” that the electric-car maker claims videos of Elon Musk touting Autopilot may not actually be real.
Confronted with Tesla's suggestion that some clips could be digitally altered deep fakes and therefore not suitable as evidence, the judge came up with an elegant solution: Put the billionaire entrepreneur and artificial intelligence enthusiast under oath and have him testify as to which statements coming out of his mouth are authentic.
If a tentative order to that effect by Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Evette Pennypacker becomes final, it would be a watershed moment in the escalating controversy over Tesla's driver-assistance technology.
Tesla and Musk are under legal pressure from consumers, investors, securities regulators and federal prosecutors questioning whether the company has over-hyped its progress toward self-driving vehicles during the last eight years. Tesla also is in the thick of multiple probes by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration over possible defects in Autopilot linked to at least 17 deaths.
The three-hour deposition of Musk ordered by the judge would put him on record to defend years of statements vouching for his technology in media interviews, blog posts and tweets. Musk may also have to answer for his role in overseeing the creation of a 2016 video that exaggerated the abilities of Autopilot — including his dictation of the opening text that claimed the company's car drove itself.
The stakes couldn't be higher.
Just this month in a conference call with investors, Musk said in no uncertain terms he's willing to bet the company's profit margins on finally fulfilling his
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