The Santa Clara County Superior Court judge presiding over a wrongful death lawsuit against Tesla relating to its "Full Self Driving" marketing and very public statements by Tesla's CEO Elon Musk. Musk has used his wealth to thrust himself into the public eye and enjoys making wild statements that many accept as accurate without any facts or logic check. Many comments made by Musk on video appear to support the plaintiff's case, and they'd like them admitted as evidence. Tesla claims that anything on video of Musk may be a deep fake because he is so popular; thus, they can not confirm or deny Musk has said what the video clearly shows.
The judge is ordering Musk to appear for a deposition as it should be possible to confirm or deny having said things when presented with video evidence. This claim by Tesla seems a celestial attempt to bullshit justice.
Tesla previously told the court it could not admit or deny "the authenticity of a number of statements allegedly made by Elon Musk in various speeches and interviews over a period of nearly ten years."
"While at first glance it might seem unusual that Tesla could not admit or deny the authenticity of video and audio recordings purportedly containing statements by Mr. Musk, the reality is he, like many public figures, is the subject of many 'deepfake' videos and audio recordings that purport to show him saying and doing things he never actually said or did," Tesla wrote last week.
Pennypacker wasn't swayed by Tesla's objections, writing that "Tesla's argument that it cannot commit one way or another to the statements, or in some cases even admit that it is Mr. Musk in the videos, because of the ease with which deep fakes can be made is unconvincing."
Among other challenged statements, Tesla refused to admit that in June 2014, Musk said, "I'm confident that—in less than a year—you'll be able to go from onramp to highway exit without touching any controls." This Musk statement, which has been quoted in many news articles, came during a Q&A at Tesla's 2014 shareholder meeting that can be viewed on YouTube.
Another example of CEO Musk putting his shareholders in jeopardy with his mouth.
