[UPDATE: fake] They made his car "cease & desist"
UPDATE: Busted by the Verge, sorry everybody. Fuck.
Original Post*
Article: Tesla Allegedly Disables Rapper’s Cybertruck After Song Critique.
A company being able to deactivate your purchased property is absolutely dystopian
Not absolutely, because a company being able to deactivate your purchased property for ulterior reasons is more dystopian.
I also suspect the rapper wasn't exactly praising the cybertruck, so that would add "for insulting misrepresenting? a company". That's even more dystopian.
You don't have to suspect anything, watch the video. He's hyping the Cybertruck, hyping, "I'm RICH BEEYOTCH!" This is Tesla trying to distance themselves from that message.
I'm just glad they got a power hungry, austistic lunatic in charge now, so everyone can see this is absolutely the end game, before this becomes normalized and people like me get called retarded for not wanting a car that can be remote deactivated.
Tell that to the gaming industry
"Free speech absolutist"
So stupid. So petty. Elon needs to grow the fuck up.
He won't
*die
We need to make sure that people can't have this kind of power.
He is a symptom of the real problem.
Clippy moment 📎💬
Unacceptable. It should be illegal to even build the capability to brick someone else's property
This is a major feature of nearly all cars now. Dealerships can remotely track and disable cars when people fall behind on their payments. That's because so many people fall behind on payments nowadays, they need easy mechanisms for dealing with it. America is cooked.
Got to love it. My crappy car doesn't even have Bluetooth, but it does have a CD auto changer. Can't brick my car.
This should indocate to everyone that you cannot rely on any car to work that has this capability.
same with the F-35s sold to other countries. and those cost a lot more than even a cybertruck. imagine it being disabled mid-flight. probably entirely possible.
You say that, but your avatar is not Clippy.
Oi! Don't bring clippy into this! He was an innocent clip from a better era! More like a qevlarr@lemmy.world moment 👎🖕!!
Edit: lol my poor clippy just getting hated on
This is a good case to battle the shit out of Tesla in court and set a landmark verdict on the "you buy but don't own" abuse.
Usually this would however require that courts are capable of reaching proper verdicts, that the government actually cared about the people, that consumer protection agencies had any footing etc. Alas, all of them are infiltrated by the big capital corporations.
Also, how is it protected from a song? Satire and parody are fair game.
or his next hit song: burn down the dealerships /s
I mean, maybe it could work right now, considering how elmo and dump had a falling out. People might be able to leverage dumps pettiness to get a verdict on something like this. Now would be the time to try, though.
Imagine:
You have parking lots full of your cars that can't sell because your CEO is basically in the top 5 of horrible humans.
You have horror stories about kids burning alive in the cars because they couldn't open the doors.
You have a Rapper, with social following, in Detroit, Motor City, with a 100k model of your car who makes a song about how you're fucking up, and you shut down his 100k car and send a c&d.
Could you imagine a PR department being this bad at its job?
He could make a music video burning the thing to the ground and make his money back.
That's strange you don't think the PR department takes its marching orders from their furher directly
This is what happens when you buy a car from a tech company. There is no reason that a Ts&Cs should ever come with a car - but here we are. For now, avoid any company that does things like this. Top of mind are Tesla and BMW
Calling it buying is the problem. It is proprietary internet connected garbage. It is a rental you paid buyer money for. No one owns a Tesla. No Tesla is for sale, and neither is any car that runs proprietary internet connect software. Someone else ultimately controls it. That person is the real owner. Primitive idiots struggle to understand this exceptionally simple concept. Terms and conditions are you selling your rights as a citizen willing to become a slave to someone else. It isn't normal. It exists because people are not smart enough to say no and stand up for themselves. I don't rent one of these shit cars, or watch TV with terms and conditions, or run shitty operating systems, or stalkerware whore myself to bezos' camera on the front of my home as a doorbell. None of this is actually normal. It's fools selling their rights as citizens in a democracy for peanuts and IOUs.
Mr "freedom of speech absolutionist" hard at work I see
Hey maybe we shouldn't have a world where car companies can remotely deactivate your vehicle if you say mean things about them?
If car companies can't remotely deactivate your vehicle, how will they be able to extort you and harass you and sell you out to the police?
This has been standard in every car made after 2003
If your car is newer than that, the police can request the car company disable your engine.
It's fucked up and evil, but it isn't new, just the first time it's been blatantly abused
Just looked up the lyrics and it's just Huey saying he drives a cybertruck because he's got money. I bet the only reason Musk hates it is because he's a racist shitbag
Gods yes. Watched half the video and he's hyping the truck. "I'm rich BEEOTCH!" is the theme. Musk doesn't want, ahem, "black folks", making his truck a gansta thang.
Big Huey’s track, reportedly titled “Cyberflop” based on social media buzz, lampooned the Cybertruck’s design flaws and reliability issues, echoing widespread criticisms that have plagued the vehicle since its 2019 unveiling
The "reportedly" here is a dead give away here that the author didn't bother with even the slightest research.
I didn't want to listen to the entire thing but it sure doesn't sound like a diss track to me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIWGAnYutq0
Yeah I saw that and it appears to be wrong.
Check it out for yourself https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIWGAnYutq0
Verge reported there are signs the video may be fix and Tesla posted to confirm that it was indeed fake.
https://www.theverge.com/tesla/757594/tesla-cybertruck-deactivated-viral-video-fake
Tesla's reply: "This is fake – that’s not our screen. Tesla does NOT disable vehicles remotely."
They do though, so thats a total lie. Try getting into your car that you paid for firmware, see if tesla locks you down.
I'll note none of my old cars have this problem. Don't buy new cars people.
Normally I would care that it's a fake story but in this case I don't mind spreading it. That guy needs to pay for what he has done to our country.
The reason to care is that when Tesla does pull shenanigans with their cars, now everyone's going to just call it "fake news". This incident has just bought them all the cover in the world to be assholes.
And I am ready to look the other way, because why should I care about Musk when he hates me? There are other priorities.
Actually, I will begin by not even fact-checking the original post. That's right. I will vibe-comment (I hope I'm using this at least somewhat right. I'm very old in internet years, I'm so sorry).
No, when you spread disparaging lies about someone it only makes their critics look less trustworthy in the future. It's like the boy who cried wolf.
Fake news is the tool of the enemy. You don't need it when there is plenty of truth available as ammunition.
Anyone who buys a fucking motor vehicle that comes with Terms and Conditions agreement, let alone one that can be spontaneously and remotely turned off... you're a fucking moron. And Tesla needs to be sued into oblivion. That shit should NOT be legal.
Anyone who buys a fucking motor vehicle that comes with Terms and Conditions agreement
Increasingly looking like "all of them".
Assuming this is real, I don't see how this is legal? There's no way Tesla would win in court under any sane judge. If they bought the car outright and fully own it (i.e. didn't lease it from Tesla), then that is the car owner's property. The manufacturer can't, effectively, sabotage your property without consequence. I truly hope this is not real, and if it is, they bring this to court ASAP and get precedent to squash this type of insanity right off the bat. If Tesla gets away with this bullshit--again, if it's real--then other companies will very likely begin following suit.
Assuming this is real, I don't see how this is legal? There's no way Tesla would win in court under any sane judge. If they bought the car outright and fully own it (i.e. didn't lease it from Tesla), then that is the car owner's property.
I'm fairly certain that it won't go before a judge. If Tesla doesn't have a forced arbitration clause https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbitration_clause in their contracts I would be truly surprised.
The manufacturer can't, effectively, sabotage your property without consequence.
I don't own a Tesla and dont have access to a US contract, but it wouldnt be far fetched that there's something in there about Tesla reserving the right to use a kill switch at their discretion.
I truly hope this is not real,
You and me both. But we live in a stupid timeline, and I can no longer tell what's outrageously real and what's rage bait.
I don't own a Tesla and dont have access to a US contract, but it wouldnt be far fetched that there's something in there about Tesla reserving the right to use a kill switch at their discretion.
In any sane country, one of the hundreds of consumer protection laws would have a judge laugh as they threw it out.
I don’t see how this is legal?
Oh, sweet summer child. This is the USA we're talking about. Potus shows every day that him being pissed off about something basically makes it illegal unless you have more money than him. It only follows that his subjects take his example.
There’s no way Tesla would win in court under any sane judge.
And more than half the legal system has been either replaced or intimidated into submission.
Sorry if I sound terminally pessimistic here. In January I still might have held out some hope for a peaceful solution, but by now it's clear: this country will collapse, one way or another. This is not sustainable, and there will be no peaceful transition of power. I mean they're already putting all sorts of measures in place to make sure they "win" the next elections. And even if Democrats could win somehow - what then? The country is already fucked up. IMO, beyond repair. It needs to be replaced.
You're assuming the court judges aren't just paid schills for corporate interests.
I mean... It depends on the terms you sign while purchasing.
I dunno if they still do this, but over a decade ago, Apple used to put in their Terms of Service that (paraphrasing) you are only paying for the service associated with an iPhone. The physical hardware is on loan to you and still belongs to the company, and they have the right to do whatever they want with it as their property. Deactivate it remotely, recall it, wipe it, etc.
During tech expo's, Apple would remotely disable features of any iPhone in the area so you couldn't take photos, record video, connect to the Internet, etc. while you were on the show floor. You had to leave the event before your phone's capabilities returned.
Tesla, dealing in an electronic vehicle that is connected remotely to their services, could absolutely do one of these legal contracts during the sale. And if you sign it, you have no legal leg to stand on when they disable and/or recall your vehicle.
The loophole is that while you own the car, you only license the software that allows it to run. They didn't take the car away, "just" terminated the license 🤬
Time for a sequel to "United Breaks Guitars."
"Tesla bricked me truuuk."
LOL registered previously in your name OR in your possession....
So Tesla doesn't even give a shit if the guy still owns the vehicle, they deactivated it because he owned it at one point in time.
He could have sold it to some poor fuck who now has a bricked Cyber truck and Tesla don't give a fuck.
I thought it was forbidden by tesla to resell these things?
and now you know why
They tried that with the Founders Series but they walked back after they found out sales were slow.
Just wanted to say, huge props for editing the post and title when you found out it was debunked. That's so important and too many people just don't take that step when they learn, so upvoted for that
If I made a song about legs, they would no longer ride my bike? Nah, looks like bicycles are the "Linux" of the streets.
For those who don't know, this shit is protected by the freedom of speech
Not quite, Tesla is not a part of the government.
... yet.
And by the time they are, there will be no such thing as freedom of speech.
Yeah, that's literally not how any of this constitutional stuff works.
Free speech is your right to say what you think without the government censoring you. But it has limits and common misunderstandings:
It's not a "free-for-all." You can't yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater just to cause a panic. You can't tell lies about someone to ruin their reputation (that's called defamation).
It doesn't apply to private companies. Your boss can fire you for saying something they don't like. Twitter (X) can ban you from their platform. A restaurant can kick you out for being rude. These are private entities with their own rules, not the government.
Analogy: The First Amendment means the police can't arrest you for wearing a shirt that says "The Mayor is a cunt." However, your boss at a private company can still fire you for wearing that same shirt to work if they think it's unprofessional.
See shit posts like this are why I'm in favor of dismantling the department of education, if it produces such ignorant outcomes, it creates more harm than good.
At least if you were an uneducated hick from some Boondock wastewater town, I could have a shred of understanding for not having had the opportunity to pay attention in 3rd grade social studies.
Fucking red hat wearing so called constitutionalists who literally don't know what it fucking says.
seems like this should go to court - make tesla prove these claims, and explain how they're allowed to stifle both free speech and parody.
because this is absolute bullshit
I don’t feel bad for losers that bought Nazi cars and trucks. You should have known better. And people expect these people to go to space and not randomly kill people?
Lol, Cybercucks getting what they deserve. Don't drive a swasticar if you don't want consequences. It was Tesla, this time. Next time, it could just be a citizen looking to enact a bit of justice.
Inb4 douchebags defending their Tesla because they bought it "before Elon was crazy". Your lack of awareness does not excuse your bad choices. Sell your Tesla.
Selling your Tesla is an odd take. To whom are condoning the purchase of a Tesla?
To some asshole who will still buy a Tesla, duh
You are dividing the working class just like the billionaires want you to do. You are demanding that people make a sacrifice of tens of thousands of dollars to accomplish very little.
This is another fucking purity test that divides the left and makes us incapable of handling the existential threat that is the republican party.
People who bought cybertrucks? Yeah, fuck 'em. Elon's right-wing bullshit was very public by the point the cybertruck was released. Those people aren't with us anyway.
But you're discounting over a million people in the US, who generally lean very left, who generally also have the finances to help support political action against this extraordinarily corrupt and dangerous right-wing regime.
Kill the snake, then we can go back to squabbling.
I'm focusing the working class by denigrating those who fund a billionaire, which comes at the cost of at least forty to fifty thousand dollars per item (car)?
Really, dude? Are you that disconnected from all us poor people?
Man, if all electric cars can do this bullshit, then I think I'm gonna just be stuck with an internal combustion engine no matter how bad they are for the environment.
Ain't no way I'm gonna get into a vehicle that can be remotely disabled by a jackass.
This isn't specific to electric cars, vehicles equipped with On Star can be remotely disabled in the event of theft (and by extension I imagine a legal injunction). I imagine this extends to other vehicles also.
The real problem is the OTA updates and always-online nature of modern vehicles, not necessarily what powers them.
Yes, but I don't have to buy a car with OnStar in it. It seems like every electric car has these OTA features at least in the states. In internal combustion cars that can avoid those features. I'd be more than happy to buy any one of these electric cars if I control the updates and there's no always on connection.
Except that it's all cars that do this why would the car being powered by electricity have any bearing. All cars have computers these days.
Be a shame if a truck on the side of the road containing highly volatile lithium ion suddenly got a bit hot
This is both extremely alarming and extremely funny.
Seems like a huge shot in the foot for Tesla, I mean, that's on character for Elon nowadays, but still, are we sure this is true and not some publicity stunt for this rapper guy?
My guess is publicity stunt:
https://www.theverge.com/tesla/757594/tesla-cybertruck-deactivated-viral-video-fake
The disinformation blade cuts both ways I guess
These guys are tender.
We talk trash on european cars since ever. Brands and models alike. Nobody cares. And getting a car that was paid for blocked because someone feels the brand is being hurt would trigger a shit storm.
When are you guys going to push Tesla to the bin?
I don't think the rapper was even criticizing them. I think he was literally singing their praises.
Cybertruck's basically are in the bin. They have recalled them so many times and no longer have a sales campaign for them. Sure some get sold, but I bet fElon is giving a lot of them away to friends or sold under govt contract.
The problem is that doesn't really change stonk value. Tesla sells dreams and lies... cars just happen to be a useful byproduct.
Remotely deactivated? Fucking hell...
Theft.
You wouldn't un-download a car would you??
Upload a car?
I would set it to fire
It’s not fair to call Elon “it.” You should have more respect for objects.
I thought this was proven to be fake along with the video the guy posted.
They have the actual C & D letter in the pic and there are numerous articles about it. I think it's on you to prove it's not real at this point.
Where are these supposed articles? All I've found are links on reddit/X/etc, and we know how reliable those are...
Wake me up when a bug causes the remote disable while in motion, killing the driver. Then something may come out of it.
Why is anyone still driving piece of shit teslas
I doubt this
Not first time this happened: https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/20/business/chechnya-kadyrov-musk-tesla-cybertruck-disabled
Yeah, me neither. It's just an attempt to gain publicity IMO.
My late friend Robotech_Master once said to me that there are things too bad to be true
"Say the make or model of your car on camera and well deactivate it" doesnt sound like that good of a marketing campaign.
More like "Ceased to exist"...
The only vehicle I will ever buy is one I have full and total control over. No remote shutdown, no DRM, no limp-home mode, nothing to prevent me from using it and enjoying it.
As much as this sounds real, it's not.
We have a picture of the letter in this post. If you have any proof, the onus is on you to provide it.