On April 28th, according to reports from Reuters and Bloomberg, lawyers for Tesla have made a shocking defense in a lawsuit regarding a fatal crash caused by the company’s autopilot system. The lawyers argue that statements made by Tesla CEO Elon Musk about the capabilities of the autopilot software in the past cannot be trusted because they may have been created using deepfake technology.
Tesla presented this argument in response to why Musk should not have to testify in a lawsuit brought by the family of Walter Huang, an Apple engineer who died in a fatal crash while driving a Tesla Model X on a California highway in 2018. Huang’s family claims that Tesla’s Autopilot system was responsible for the accident because it did not recognize and avoid obstacles in time. They requested that Musk testify and explain his past statements about the safety of the Autopilot software.
These statements include Musk’s claim in a 2016 interview that “the current Model S and Model X can drive safer than humans.” This interview is still available to watch online.
Tesla’s lawyers argued that Musk has no recollection of these statements and that “as a public figure, he is frequently the subject of deepfake videos and audio, which he has never actually said or done.”
However, Judge Evette D. Pennypacker, who is presiding over the case in Santa Clara County Superior Court, expressed deep concern over Tesla’s defense, stating that “their position is that because Musk is famous, he is more likely to be the target of deepfakes, so his public statements should not be held to account. In other words, Musk and others in his position can say whatever they want and then use the excuse that their recordings may have been deepfaked to avoid responsibility for what they say and do.”
Judge Pennypacker has ordered Musk to testify for a limited three-hour period about these statements, with a hearing scheduled for Thursday to determine the specifics of the testimony. The trial is set to begin on July 31st.
