# Elon Musk Likely Must Give Deposition in Fatal Tesla Autopilot Crash Suit | Tech News (HT Tech) > 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. # 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. Apr 28 2023, 08:12 IST ![Follow on Facebook](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/follow-us-facebook.png) ![Follow on Facebook](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/follow-us-facebook-hover.png) ![Share](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/Share.png) ![Share](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/Shareclicked.png) ![Share on WhatsApp](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/whatsapp.png) ![Share on WhatsApp](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/whatsapp-hover.png) ![Share on Twitter](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/twitter.png) ![Share on Twitter](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/twitter-hover.png) ![Share on Facebook](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/facebook.png) ![Share on Facebook](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/facebook-hover.png) ![Bookmark](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/Bookmark.png) ![Bookmarked](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/Bookmarked.png) ![Elon Musk](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/img/2023/04/28/1600x900/elon_musk_1677568235141_1682649552439.jpg) Elon Musk Likely Must Give Deposition in Fatal Tesla Autopilot Crash Suit. (Bloomberg) ![Author Photo](https://images.hindustantimes.com/tech/static/revamp/images/png/HTTech-new-circle-logo.png) ### By BLOOMBERG 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. Also read click here. 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 goal to produce fully autonomous cars. His predictions since at least 2019 that autonomous Teslas are just around the corner haven’t panned out. Pennypacker is holding a hearing Thursday to resolve the jousting over whether Musk must give testimony in a suit by a family suing Tesla over a 2018 fatal crash. The electric-car maker has argued that it couldn’t vouch for the authenticity of some videotaped interviews of Musk that the family wants to question him about. Pennypacker said in her tentative order that it sounded like the company was trying to have it both ways. “Their position is that because Mr. Musk is famous and might be more of a target for deep fakes, his public statements are immune,” the judge wrote. “In other words, Mr. Musk, and others in his position, can simply say whatever they like in the public domain, then hide behind the potential for their recorded statements being a deep fake to avoid taking ownership of what they did actually say and do.” Elon Musk Directed Tesla Autopilot Video Saying Car Drove Itself While judges often spare chief executive officers and other high-ranking officials from having to give depositions, Pennypacker concluded the only way to get to the bottom of what’s real and what isn’t is to put Musk under oath. At the hearing, lawyers for Tesla can try to persuade the judge to change her mind. Tesla and its lawyers in the case didn’t respond to requests for comment. The lawsuit was brought by the family of Walter Huang, an Apple Inc. engineer who died during his morning commute when his 2017 Model X veered into a concrete barrier on a highway about 45 minutes south of San Francisco. The family claims the Autopilot system malfunctioned and steered the car into the median. Tesla Sued Over Fatal Crash Blamed on Autopilot Malfunction According to Tesla, Huang’s hands were not detected on the steering wheel multiple times during the 19 minutes leading up to the crash, during which Autopilot issued two visual and one audible alert for hands-off driving. Huang was playing the video game Three Kingdoms on his phone at the time of the crash, according to an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. Lawyers for the Huang family have sought documents from Tesla to back up numerous public statements by Musk between 2014 and 2017 about the company’s progress developing self-driving technology. Some of those statements have been cited in recent consumer lawsuits accusing Tesla of failing to deliver on Musk’s longstanding promise to produce a fully self-driving car. The family’s lawyers argued that Tesla has failed to adequately respond to their demands for information during the pretrial discovery process and asked the judge to sanction the company. But Pennypacker denied that request in Wednesday’s tentative ruling. “It is clear to the court that Tesla made efforts to respond to plaintiffs’ discovery requests,” she wrote. “In some cases, plaintiffs simply do not like the answers received.” Catch all the Latest Tech News, Mobile News, Laptop News, Gaming news, Wearables News , How To News, also keep up with us on Whatsapp channel,Twitter, Facebook, Google News, and Instagram. 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