Elon’s mouth is causing him problems – and not just car problems.
The British diver who helped rescue a soccer team trapped in a cave in Thailand is suing Elon Musk for defamation after the Tesla CEO called him a “pedo” on Twitter.
According to a court filing obtained by news outlets, Vern Unsworth is seeking $75,000 in compensatory damages, additional punitive damages, and wants Musk prohibited from making false statements about him.
The dustup between Unsworth and Musk started when the diver criticized a vessel Musk offered to help rescue 12 boys and the coach of a Thai soccer team. During a CNN interview, Unsworth called the mini-submarine a “PR stunt.”
“He can stick his submarine where it hurts,” Unsworth said. “It just had absolutely no chance of working.”
Musk lashed out, calling Unsworth a “pedo guy” in a since-deleted tweet.
“Apparently angered by his efforts being rejected or not being recognized, Musk intentionally sought to strike out publicly against Mr. Unsworth by damaging his reputation with a salacious and spurious accusation of pedophilia,” read an excerpt from the filing.
Since then, Musk questioned why Unsworth didn’t move forward with a lawsuit against him over the “pedo” remark.
“You don’t think it’s strange he hasn’t sued me? He was offered free legal services,” Musk wrote on Twitter in August.
The lawsuit is among several missteps made by Musk over the last several months. In early August, he revealed on Twitter he had funding secure to take Tesla private at $420 a share. After a flurry of questions about how solid that offer really was, and whether his tweet violated U.S. securities rules, he later switched gears to announce the company would remain public.
Three months earlier, he ripped analysts during a Tesla quarterly earnings call for asking “boring” questions.
Earlier this month, Musk generated controversy following an appearance on a podcast where he appeared to be smoking a joint with host Joe Rogan.
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I recently read an article on TM cars out of warranty. If the car is out of warranty TM forgets the owner is even a customer. No access to parts for independent mechanics, service centers become a bigger pain, and no real help of any kind. Just royally screwed over forced to get ebay parts and do the repairs one’s self. Like trying to fix an old car in the 80s before the internet, but worse.
And the stuff these cars need just out of warranty is insane. What a pile of crap.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/28/tesla-owner-frustrated-so-fixes-his-own-model-s-easy-as-legos.html
Elon, please heed and believe the title of the theme song from M.A.S.H.
C’mon Elon, you can do it.
Elon came along at just the right time to become the tech messiah after Steve Jobs died. The problem is he is nothing like Jobs. Steve kept a very low profile, rarely talking to the press and put a lot of effort into his public face. Heck, he went to the extreme of getting a new vehicle every 3 months so he didn’t have to have a license plate. Interviews were usually a big deal and just about completely scripted. For sure he didn’t have a social media presence.
Of course Jobs was no messiah either. But he at least was intelligent enough to know that living an unfiltered life especially when there’s a million spotlights shining on you is a pretty bad idea.
Jobs had Woz and Woz had Jobs. They had complementary skill sets. Separate we would have never heard of either.
Guess he got his wish about the guy filing a lawsuit, though if I was Mr. Unsworth it would be for a heckuvalot more than $75,000. Hope Muskrat gets whacked for a million or more, should be chump change if he really is a billionaire.