Tesla Fails Again In Suing Top Gear For Mocking Tesla's Range
from the let-it-go dept
We've never quite understood the strategy of electric automaker Tesla to sue the BBC and Top Gear because of an episode that involved a Tesla roadster, which the Top Gear crew mocked, at one point claiming it only got 55 miles before the batteries ran out of juice. This was a marginally amusing segment on a show that's known for tossing around a (somewhat joking) insult or six about lots of cars. In other words, no big deal. Except to Tesla -- and specifically its founder, Elon Musk, who lashed out angrily about the show and then sued for "libel" over the episode. Apparently that strategy failed even faster than a Tesla battery* and did so twice. After having the first lawsuit tossed out, an amended lawsuit met the same fate with the judge saying that the claims were "not capable of being defamatory at all, or, if it is, it is not capable of being a sufficiently serious defamatory meaning to constitute a real and substantial tort." In other words, go away.The thing is, I can't see how this made any sense at all. Most people would have just moved on, but by suing it seems to only call more attention to the original claims and generate much more interest in that episode. If Tesla had just let it go and focused on, you know, building great cars, no one would have cared much about a jokey comment from a TV show.
* This, too, is a joke, so don't sue me for making a joke about your batteries. I'm actually a big fan of Tesla and am eagerly looking forward to the company's future models which look pretty damn cool.
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Filed Under: defamation, top gear
Companies: bbc, tesla
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I mean, here at least, FACTS can't be considered libel, but then again, I'm also aware the UK is a bit looser with their definition of the term.
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Prudent owners wouldn't buy a Tesla - it's a sportscar.
Tesla owners will delight in the amazing off-the-line acceleration - they won't drive it moderately.
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For some reason seems a popular thing to spend fortune on a super fast car so you can drive the damn thing at 25mph in a 55mph zone. So yeah, I bet it would get great range the way most of these morons baby their sportscars and never actually drive them.
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You have to see it through their eyes. They just spent a ton of money on proving their man-hood/women-hood and they can't afford the speeding ticket. Cops like sports cars too. They drive me crazy, but then I remember that I don't need to buy a vehicle to prove anything, and I go on my way.
What drives me more crazy is the 70 year old driving the crown vic who drives 25mph while running every stop-sign and stop-light in sight. "This car has only one speed...25mph, and no breaks." Argh!
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On the other hand, a top rating from these guys means that whatever it was, it's rugged as hell.
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They basically treated it just like they would any other sports car they test. They pushed it hard as they could and told the results. In this case they came to conclusion that while a cool car it just is not ready to hang with gas car just yet. That is not really a bad thing.
Elon Musk just needs to grow up and accept some critisem. I mean Top gear will pick on pretty much any car they test. This is because no car is perfect. What Tesla should take from this is that they still have some work to do. Suck it up and get to work. It is not like top gear saying a few bad things will hurt you. Top gear says bad things about Ferrari and Lamborghini so yeah, what did they expect them to say about a Tesla?
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What to call it?
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I can also understand that the courts aren't in a rush to help them out.
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Basically electric cars are to the oil / automotive industry, the same as the internet is to the content / communications industry.
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You do understand, that to prove defamation, you have to prove harm and distinguish that harm from other market effects (I see no evidence of that except hurt feelings), prove that the specific facts were blatantly false, and that the party that spoke them knew they were false and would cause harm?
None of those things appear to be valid here. So why again is it valid (or even relevant) to claim bias here?
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yeah sure...
how many days does it take to charge from solar panels?
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You see too many conspiracies.
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Why then do people not experience these events regularly? Advanced logic circuits to measure and monitor the batteries. It keeps the battery from exploding (literally), and prevents it from internal damage on discharge.
So then the obvious question does the Tesla battery pack and charging system have advanced logic, for sure. In fact there are many articles about how advanced it is.
As for this road test one their reports they said the car had "reduced power". That's not how it would operate in a situation where there wasn't enough battery power. Obviously Tesla would be upset if the test data was false. Tesla has had it's engineers poor over the car and the logged data and could find no evidence that such an issue ever occurred. A weak battery would be prevented from discharging too low, and everything else should be normal operation of the car full battery or weak battery.
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That's what I've heard about the way that story went, anyway.
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http://jalopnik.com/5887265/tesla-motors-devastating-design-problem
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The Funny Thing Is ...
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I dream of owning one
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Re: I dream of owning one
Try reading things properly, just a thought.
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Re: IIRC this is not actually true
They could have silenced their critics, once and for all, by saying that this has never happened. And if it did happen, that Tesla would pay for the repair. But as you can see they didn't - chosing instead to rubbish the report and say that bricking wouldn't happen in specific scenarios.
http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/plug-it
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Well
Seriously, its just annoying. Its like a college professor telling their students an unintentionally hilarious joke and telling them something in the end that negates that joke.
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I'm a Ford guy from now on.
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Response to: Anonymous Coward on Mar 8th, 2012 @ 2:36am
Just wait til the warranty runs out. You'll change your mind about that as everything fails in 3 years and 1 month...
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Explain to me again how drawing more attention to their cars and their good batteries is bad for Tesla.
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Musk is a character.
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What!?
What idiots.
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Re: What!?
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Tesla
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You know, the video is available
with the following:
Jeremy said "we've worked out that on our track it would run out after 55 miles."
It is amazing that withing the span of about 120 years, we've come from being confined to within a few miles of where you were born or completely abandoning your family and friends to people intent on preventing you from staying in close touch with family if you choose to immigrate. Why do these people hate my grandmother?
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I don't see how it's not defamatory
The number of people on this thread taking the 55 mile as a fact reaffirms the severity of it. (actual range is well over 200 miles)
It's a hell of a lot more serious and harmful than some nonsense claim about a celebrities personal life. We're talking real economic damages, not hurt feelings.
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In other news, Mike Masnick was spotted the other day in his brand new Tesla...
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Also, if the cars died after 55 mile, then they died. It isn't libel, it's true.
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Top Gear come on!
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Tyler Simpson - just ... NO !!!
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The 55 miles part was written into the script. The car still had 100 miles of range left on it. That's libel.
Are you for real ? It is not libel - I take it your are American or from some other “sue the world the first chance you get” place??
Top Gear did not make the 55 mile range figure up .. it was calculated based on the consumption at the time (while on track) being driven like a sports car !! (as it is one !!) Apparently according to the manufacturer I should get 40 MPG from my car however I average about 24 MPG .. Why ?? .. Coz I don’t drive like a 90 yr old !!
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