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 screen. Tesla does NOT disable automobiles remotely.”
On Sunday, Instagram person @bighuey313 posted a video of his supposed deactivated Cybertruck, full with a flashing pink warning message on the truck’s fundamental 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 vice chairman 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 rapidly went viral on BlueSky, the place anti-Elon Musk sentiment has helped gas nationwide protests in opposition to Tesla. However customers rapidly observed quite a lot of discrepancies, akin to the truth that the letter opens “We characterize Tesla” regardless of being signed by the corporate’s in-house counsel. The letter additionally makes use of Eskin’s previous title, “Sr. Director and Deputy Basic 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 pink title was seemingly only a YouTube video enjoying on fullscreen to simulate a reliable error.
Regardless of these points, the video went viral on BlueSky, X, and Reddit — and certain will proceed to journey far and huge, confirming many individuals’s prior opinions about Tesla and Elon Musk.