Tesla sues Top Gear for libel

[arthurbowe]

http://www.motorauthority.com/blog/...cs-top-gear-for-libel-and-malicious-falsehood

Didn't see this one lol. Wonder who comes out on top...

 

[Doppel]

Wouldn't surprise me if Tesla is correct here. Top Gear is entertainment first, car news second.

Man but Jeremy Clarkson's pronunciation is annoying, isn't it. He calls the Tesla the "tez-la".

This is the vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DfHyGD7_pM

Anyway, if the car does 211 miles normally 55 under race conditions is fine.

 

[sdifox]

lulz... Top Gear makes every car look bad.

 

[ThatsABigOne]

I hope Top Gear wins.

 

[drnickriviera]

Wasn't there some issue with the Lancia Stratos kit car episode a while back? Owner said they made up some of the breakdowns?

 

[Monster_Munch]

Clarkson is pretty biased against anything that's supposed to be environmentally friendly.

There's quite a funny bit in one episode where they get the Stig to drive a Prius around the track as fast as he can while Clarkson follows him at the same speed in an M3, the end result was the M3 used less fuel.

 

[DivideBYZero]

A Top Gear spokeswoman said: "We can confirm that we have received notification that Tesla have issued proceedings against the BBC. The BBC stands by the programme and will be vigorously defending this claim"

AKA join the queue with the Mexican Ambassador.

 

[alfa147x]

Those guys hold their bias against certain cars / manufacturers but I don't care. I enjoy their show very much. If I'm in the market for a car I might watch the Top Gear episode but I will take into account that they aren't the greatest and most reasonable people to get information from.

 

[sdifox]

Those guys hold their bias against certain cars / manufacturers but I don't care. I enjoy their show very much. If I'm in the market for a car I might watch the Top Gear episode but I will take into account that they aren't the greatest and most reasonable people to get information from.

err, you watch the show for the lulz, not for objective reviews.

 

[alfa147x]

err, you watch the show for the lulz, not for objective reviews.

Yup. Sorry im jitter as hell off of my morning coffee

 

[Kabob]

I just came to post this, I think it's a PR move on Tesla's part but that doesn't mean it won't stir up the hornet's nest.

Also, an update.

BBC Stands by Top Gear claims

The BBC is being sued by the makers of the electric sports car, the Tesla Roadster, over claims a race on Top Gear was rigged.

Tesla Motors claims the test set up by Jeremy Clarkson on a 2008 edition of the show was rigged to make it look like the Tesla ran out of power when racing a petrol powered Lotus.

The Tesla Roadster is the world's fastest production electric car.

A Top Gear spokesman said the BBC would be "vigorously defending" the claim.

On the programme Jeremy Clarkson claimed: "Although Tesla say it'll do 200 miles, we worked out that on our track it would run out after just 55 miles."

'Driven aggressively'
But in a statement on its website, Tesla said the Roadster's miles per charge had been certified at 211 miles by a third party European Union (EU) test.

It argued that because the car was "driven aggressively" on Top Gear the charge didn't last as long, but that if driven "mindfully" charges could last for 313 miles.

The statement also disagreed with several other elements of the show.

A Top Gear spokeswoman said: "We can confirm that we have received notification that Tesla have issued proceedings against the BBC.

"The BBC stands by the programme and will be vigorously defending this claim."

 

[mmntech]

Will likely fizzle out. Corporations can't usually sue for libel, because they're not persons. Not unless the law is different in the UK. Their definition of defamation is notoriously loose.

 

[ShawnD1]

lulz... Top Gear makes every car look bad.

You can say a car feels like shit but it's straight up illegal to lie about things.
Hopefully Tesla wins.

There's quite a funny bit in one episode where they get the Stig to drive a Prius around the track as fast as he can while Clarkson follows him at the same speed in an M3, the end result was the M3 used less fuel.

The difference is that his Prius vs M3 test was probably real. The prius is running balls to the wall for the whole track and is probably close to redline at all times. The M3 is following him in the highest gear with a light foot.

 

[sdifox]

You can say a car feels like shit but it's straight up illegal to lie about things.
Hopefully Tesla wins.

right... good luck with that. you understand Top Gear did their own test right? as in "According to our test we only got xxx miles."

Pray tell how is Tesla going to win? They lost their shirt suing Fisker.

 

[ShawnD1]

right... good luck with that. you understand they did their test right? as in "According to our test we only got xxx miles."

Pray tell how Tesla is going to win?

They said in their complaint that the onboard computers didn't log any instances where it ran out of power. It was made up.

 

[sdifox]

They said in their complaint that the onboard computers didn't log any instances where it ran out of power. It was made up.

so, that is TG's fault how? Tesla could argue the data is faulty, but the car generated the data, not TG.

 

[dpodblood]

They said in their complaint that the onboard computers didn't log any instances where it ran out of power. It was made up.

Hard for the computer to log when it's not turned on.

 

[ShawnD1]

so, that is TG's fault how? Tesla could argue the data is faulty, but the car generated the data, not TG.

How do you not see how ridiculous your claim is? You're suggesting that the car did run out of power, but it didn't log any of it, yet the computers are not broken. So....the car must have run out of power then Clarkson and his hacker team hacked the computer to change the records so that it had no record of a power loss then they sent it back to Tesla just so Tesla would look at the hacked records, see no record of data loss, then sue Top Gear for lying on the show even though the show didn't actually lie but it only looks like a lie because they hacked the record to hide data. This makes perfect sense :ninja:

 

[ShawnD1]

Hard for the computer to log when it's not turned on.

Computers log things in reverse. If you pull the plug on your desktop, the computer will power up again saying "your computer did not properly turn off last time!"
Nobody knows how it knows, but it knows :ninja:

 

[sdifox]

How do you not see how ridiculous your claim is? You're suggesting that the car did run out of power, but it didn't log any of it, yet the computers are not broken. So....the car must have run out of power then Clarkson and his hacker team hacked the computer to change the records so that it had no record of a power loss then they sent it back to Tesla just so Tesla would look at the hacked records, see no record of data loss, then sue Top Gear for lying on the show even though the show didn't actually lie but it only looks like a lie because they hacked the record to hide data. This makes perfect sense :ninja:

I am suggesting Tesla has no chance of winning the lawsuit. I don't give a shit what actually transpired. You don't seem to understand what TG is all about. It's all for the lulz.

 

[Aharami]

I am suggesting Tesla has no chance of winning the lawsuit. I don't give a shit what actually transpired. You don't seem to understand what TG is all about. It's all for the lulz.

I bet most of TG's viewers don't actually think TG's reviews are for the lulz, and take them seriously instead. It's one thing to do something like substituting an old beat up car for a bentley when bentley didnt provide them with a car for their middle east special, and then proceed to rag on Bentley for making crap cars that cant hold up to their competition throughout the entire episode. But to straight up lie about a test and make it look like a factual review is wrong, IMO. I hope Tesla wins this.

 

[Imported]

Hope Tesla loses. TG is an entertainment show.. anything they say should not be taken seriously. Just a PR stunt by Tesla or a money grab since they just posted a quarterly loss. I'm sure they attracted more business from the TG segment than not anyways.

 

[Anubis]

Hope Tesla loses. TG is an entertainment show..

This

I loved the one when then went to Bonneville and were trying to NOT be entertaining, it was hilarious also
Jeremy set the record for production cars with a vett ZR1 at 176.54 mph.

 

[dpodblood]

]I bet most of TG's viewers don't actually think TG's reviews are for the lulz, and take them seriously instead.[/B] It's one thing to do something like substituting an old beat up car for a bentley when bentley didnt provide them with a car for their middle east special, and then proceed to rag on Bentley for making crap cars that cant hold up to their competition throughout the entire episode. But to straight up lie about a test and make it look like a factual review is wrong, IMO. I hope Tesla wins this.

I hope that is not that case. You would need to be mentally deficient to not see that they are made for 90% entertainment value.

 

[LTC8K6]

Sounds true to me. On the track, the car won't get anywhere near it's max or normal range. Just like any other car. Track day uses way more fuel.