Tesla Sues BBC's Top Gear For Libel

thecarchik writes "About two years ago BBC's Top Gear aired a test drive of the then relatively new Tesla Roadster. In the particular episode, Tesla Roadsters are depicted as suffering several critical 'breakdowns' during track driving. Host Jeremy Clarkson concludes the episode by saying that in the real world the Roadster 'doesn't seem to work.' Tesla claims that the breakdowns were staged, making most of Top Gear's remarks about the Roadster untrue. Tesla also states that it can prove Top Gear's tests were falsified due to the recordings of its cars' onboard data-loggers. What's Tesla asking for in the lawsuit? Tesla simply wants Top Gear to stop rebroadcasting the particular episode and to correct the record."

Comments

Finally, a reasonable lawsuit

[gman003]

Between all the quadrillion-dollars-demanded-lawsuits and shut-down-everything C&Ds, it's nice to see a lawsuit that simply wants a little justice. No big demands, just a "stop lying about our product" and "say sorry". It even looks like they have a good amount of evidence, unlike many recent suits on /.

Even if they turn out to be wrong, Tesla just got a small point of favor with me for that. It's kind of sad that "not being evil" is noteworthy in a lawsuit nowadays...

Re:Finally, a reasonable lawsuit

[jcombel]

being in a different country doesn't have much of a matter on it. it wouldn't even if tesla didn't market their cars in the UK - which they do.

on your first point, apples and oranges. the prius bit was obvious comic exaggeration stating an opinion. the tesla bit isn't comic exaggeration, it is an alleged misrepresentation of facts. it wasn't the lawyers that decided whether or not to sue; it was the sales executives who got tired of hearing "the most-watched automobile program in the world said that your car breaks down, doesn't do what you're telling me it does, and the technology isn't up to real-world use. who is lying?"

i agree with gp; it's nice to see a lawsuit that is "you are lying and costing me money, please stop," instead of "your product bears a similarity to my product, so now i have to sue you for godzilla dollars, lest i lose my patents."

Re:I remember that episode..

[Anonymous Coward]

Or it could be that Clarkson has such a big stick up his ass about "ecomentalists" that Top Gear will bash anything that doesn't burn fossil fuels, even if that thing is a sports car.

Re:Some people don't understand entertainment

[PopeRatzo]

Top Gear is entertainment.

Entertainment or not, when you claim that a car broke down a lot and it turns out you were lying about it, there's a problem.

We see a lot of this "Oh, we don't have any responsibility because we're entertainment used to excuse a lot of really reprehensible stuff. Whenever some right-wing turd makes fun of a handicapped person or says something really racist or homophobic, it's always "oh we're entertainment" but then they turn around and tell their viewers how they're serious journalists (I've got a list if you really need examples).

You don't get to have a show that gives opinions about products and then say those products broke when they didn't break, no matter how much "fun" you're having.