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Tesla remotely deactivates rapper's vehicle for singing about the Cybertruck?
- w_for_wumbo 1y agoI remember joking about this possibility - that I wouldn't want a vehicle that could be turned off remotely because I hurt someone's fragile ego.
- 01HNNWZ0MV43FF 1y agoAn Elon-esque CEO killing someone with a self-driving car was a plot point in a film that JUST came out, it's pretty funny Big "told ya so" for privacy and security nerds and common sense
- powerbroker 1y agoI Robot?
- crooked-v 1y agoThe Naked Gun (2025). It follows the pattern of past classic spoof films by having a serious(ish) plot that all the jokes are layered into.
- n2d4 1y agoNaked Gun, I assume
- dylan604 1y agoDid they remake/reboot iRobot? That thing is so old, Will Smith was still relevant enough to be casted for it
- dghlsakjg 1y agoedit: I didn't realize that there was more than his stalled car and the rap video. If you keep watching he posts the legal correspondence from Tesla. It does appear that Tesla did exactly what the headline says. Flame away
- nullstyle 1y agoRead the letter in the video. Are you claiming that's fake?
- charcircuit 1y ago>Dear Mr. Huey, >We represent Tesla, inc. ("Tesla") and are writing to formally address the unauthorized use of Tesla's tellectual property in musical content distributed under your name. Specifically, this concerns your use of the Tesla Cybertruck name and imagery in one or more songs, including but not limited to the track titled: >"Cybertruck" The letter is a hint of proof.
- crooked-v 1y agoThe message on the screen literally says "COMPLY WITH CEASE & DESIST TO REACTIVATE".
- IncreasePosts 1y agoYou can make your tesla show whatever you want it to show on the screen. I'd bet $1 that this is a rapper clout chasing and has absolutely nothing to do with Tesla itself.
- jdiff 1y agoIf he's not in legal trouble, this would get him in legal trouble in a pretty open and shut way.
- IncreasePosts 1y agoThat's just the cost of going viral
- apical_dendrite 1y agoThe screen on the dash says "Comply with cease and desist to reactivate", which indicates that the vehicle was disabled by Tesla because of a legal dispute rather than a technical issue. The letter says that the vehicle was deactivated "due to violations of Testa's Terms of Use, Including misuse of Testa's trademarks and brand identifiers in media content that falsely implies endorsement, sponsorship, or affiliation with Tesla." It could be fake of course - I'd probably regard it as fake until I saw some corroboration, but saying that "It is just a video of a cybertruck broken down with software issues" is wrong. There's no evidence of a software issue in the video, but there is evidence of a purposeful de-activation due to a dispute over the use of Tesla's trademarks.
- darth_avocado 1y agoNo matter what the legal dispute is between the rapper and the company, if the claim is true, disabling a vehicle remotely at a in a way that puts the driver at risk, not only should be illegal but a criminal liability. The man is in the middle of the freeway, this should be tried as attempted murder.
- freetime2 1y agoIt's so crazy and dangerous I still have trouble believing it's true. Looks like we absolutely need laws regarding when and where a car company can remotely disable a vehicle.
- EMIRELADERO 1y agoYou shouldn't need any laws, because it can be argued that by paying for the vehicle the owner purchased actual functionality, not just bare parts and chips. Any post-sale agreement is therefore inherently suspect from the beginning. If this is actually real I can't wait to see how it develops legally.
- darth_avocado 1y agoI have a similar understanding that the TOS doesn’t matter in this case and should not be enforceable, therefore making the company liable for civil penalties. But I really think such a reckless action should be tried as a criminal case and individual people within the company need to be held accountable. Not sure if there are any laws or precedent for that though.
- apical_dendrite 1y agoWould that logic also apply to subscriptions like Full Self Driving and supercharging? I think that even if Tesla can't disable the car over a terms of use issue, they could cancel full self driving and maybe ban you from supercharging.
- darth_avocado 1y ago
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 1y agoFreedom of speech absolutist
- duxup 1y agoAll the slogans these days just seem to be "For me and people I like..."
- 65 1y agoHow do we know Tesla deactivated his truck specifically because of his song? Edit: I'm an idiot.
- LoganDark 1y agoWho cares why they deactivated it? They shouldn't be able to, for any reason. That's not how vehicle ownership is supposed to work.
- dghlsakjg 1y agoIf you look at the video it isn't even clear that it has been deactivated by human intervention. It is the same message you get when the thing just has a software failure AFAICT. Edit: I didn't realize that if you keep watching the video, he posts the legal correspondence. My bad. I just fast forwarded and found myself in a rap video and figured that was the whole story
- LoganDark 1y agoI did look at the message, it looks like they abused functionlity that was intended for some other purpose, specifically to spite this particular vehicle owner.
- apical_dendrite 1y agoThis is just false - if there's a software failure you do not get a. message saying "COMPLY WITH CEASE & DESIST TO RE-ACTIVATE"
- mjamesaustin 1y agoWhether this was the reason or not, it should be alarming that Tesla can remotely deactivate any car in their fleet without warning. Even if you trust Tesla completely, a malicious actor could gain access to this feature and wreak havoc.
- SoftTalker 1y ago
- owlninja 1y agoFirst, just noticing I haven't seen much from threads show up on HN. Then this video doesn't really have much in the way of details and 3/4s of it is just his rap video?
- ipsum2 1y agoThe video is pretty clear, he shows that he received an official letter from Tesla about the rap video, and thats why his car was deactivated. The letter states: "Please be advised that this vehicle has been remotely deactivated due to violations of Tesla's Terms of Use"
- owlninja 1y agoI stand corrected o_O, I glazed over the legalese and did not notice that. Thanks!
- PaulHoule 1y agoAmazingly I see just 8 links to threads, and the first four are to whatever it was before Meta bought it! I'm LMFAO because I just made a Threads account like 15 minutes ago because I want to stuff my photos any place I can [1], like https://nextdoor.com/profile/01QZ_TJjbFxhyjc7L https://nextdoor.com/profile/01QZ_TJjbFxhyjc7L or https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-houle-a18809320/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-houle-a18809320/ or https://www.behance.net/paulahoule https://www.behance.net/paulahoule (glad for more suggestion... particularly if I can teach my autoposter to import from my real social https://mastodon.social/@UP8 https://mastodon.social/@UP8) Threads was easy because you can post there automatically if you post to Instagram but Instagram is next for the autoposter because it's got the slowest and most difficult posting interface of about 11 that are on my list)
- cnst 1y agoI think they bought and rebranded to threads.com only recently, the service started as threads.net, and there's a bunch of links to dot net.
- thrdbndndn 1y agoI would like to hear the other side first, because at face value, this "news" sounds insane even for Tesla.
- catlikesshrimp 1y ago"Please be advised that this vehicle has been remotely deactivated due to violations of Tesla's Terms of Use, Including misuse of Tesla's trademarks and brand identifier..."
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- bbor 1y agoYup. There's not a lot of legit reporting on this just yet, but it's also breaking news -- they're presumably verifying as we speak. The only way this is somehow fake is if 1. The driver published an old video out of context of his truck having a software malfunction on the highway, or 2. The driver somehow induced this to happen after he received the letter saying that the truck "has been deactivated". Both of those seem... unlikely, to say the least. People are interpreting this as Elon's work, but all it would take is the absurd capability to remotely deactivate someone's car (we know this is possible) and a shortsighted decision by the legal department.
- josephcsible 1y agoYou forgot 3. The driver parked his truck in the road even though it was driveable, and then played a fullscreen YouTube video of a fake Tesla UI with his desired message.
- androng 1y agoVia Certified Mail and Email RE: CEASE AND DESIST - Unauthorized Use of Tesla Intellectual Property - Cybertruck References in Musical Content Dear Mr. Huey, We represent Tesla, Inc. ("Tesla") and are writing to formally address the unauthorized use of Tesla's intellectual property in musical content distributed under your name. Specifically, this concerns your use of the Tesla Cybertruck name and imagery in one or more songs, including but not limited to the track titled: "Cybertruck" Our records show that a Tesla Cybertruck associated with VIN 7G2CEHED8RA017384 was previously registered under your name or in your possession. Please be advised that this vehicle has been remotely deactivated due to violations of Tesla's Terms of Use, Including misuse of Tesla's trademarks and brand identifiers in media content that falsely implies endorsement, sponsorship, or affiliation with Tesla. Tesla retains exclusive rights to its registered trademarks and trade dress, including but not limited to "Tesla," "Cybertruck," and all associated names, logos, imagery, and designs. Your continued use of these protected marks in music, lyrics, titles, cover art, and promotional materials constitutes unauthorized use and may mislead consumers into believing that Tesla endorses or is affiliated with your work. Accordingly, we hereby demand that you immediately: 1. Remove or revise all publicly distributed music, videos, and media content that reference "Tesla," "Cybertruck," or any derivative thereof; 2. Cease and desist from all future use of Tesla's trademarks, trade dress, and related terms in any creative commercial, or promotional materials; 3. Provide written confirmation of compliance with the above requests within seven (7) days of the date o letter. Fallure to comply monora de co compete per ravit evocation or accen to rasia venice systems can da micer injunctive This letter is sent without prejudice to any of Tesla's rights, all of which are expressly reserved. Very truly yours, Junish Dinna Eskin, Esq. Sr. Director and Deputy Ge Tesla, Inc.
- redindian75 1y agoSounds like someone is playing a prank with GPT generated letter.
- cududa 1y agoDid ChatGPT also disable his vehicle?
- ryukafalz 1y agoIf someone else can remotely disable a device that you own, you don't really own it. This kind of thing is why we need full control of our devices as device owners.
- kachapopopow 1y agoYou're obviosuly just leasing a 100k dollar vehicle here, but you can't get your money back... Or get free service... Or use it for longer than 3.8 years...
- brk 1y agoI’m not disagreeing with this, but early (like very early 1900’s) Ford vehicles had a little brass plaque with the serial number and some wording that if you misused the vehicle Ford could force you to forfeit it back to them. This concept is as old as the horseless carriage itself.
- apical_dendrite 1y agoAT&T actually owned all the telephones on their network (which was effectively all the telephones in the United States). If you wanted to use a telephone that wasn't made by an AT&T subsidiary, you had to transfer ownership of that phone to AT&T before they would allow it on their network. A significant legal precedent from the 1950s (Hush-A-Phone) relates to AT&T threatening to cut service to customers who dared to install a metal cup on their telephone receiver to muffle the sound of their conversation.
- baubino 1y agoThe 1900 equivalent then would be if Ford showed up at your house and removed the car’s starter. Making the thing you own functionally useless (while you still own it) seems categorically different to me than repossession in violation of a contract.
- cnst 1y agoYup. The supercars also famously ban some owners from purchasing them again, e.g., Ferrari: https://www.hotcars.com/banned-for-life-celebrities-ferrari/ https://www.hotcars.com/banned-for-life-celebrities-ferrari/
- grej 1y agoWow, if this is true this is some serious Black Mirror line crossing.
- duxup 1y agoSeems likely, have we seen "comply with cease and desist to reactivate" messages on Tesla's before?
- soybeansoy 1y agoThis isn't real, you can see the UI element for closing the cars builtin media player on the top of the screen in the video. It's just a video playing on the car screen lol.
- soybeansoy 1y agoTook all of 15 minutes to recreate, you can see the same gray pulldown bar on the top of the screen in this one as you can see in the original video. https://imgur.com/a/aCaZZEP https://imgur.com/a/aCaZZEP
- AdieuToLogic 1y agoYour reproduction has a pulsating red background effect on the top 25% of the display in the imgur link. Is there a reason why it does and the cited video does not? EDIT: I reviewed the original video again and noticed it, too, had a similar pulsating red background as the imgur link above had. Difference being is the cited video's entire display pulsated red verses the imgur reproduction having only the top 25% pulsate. I cannot say whether this is significant or not .
- soybeansoy 1y agoYeah, it's because I had to remake the video to show on my car and figured it wasn't worth my time to make it completely identical. In both my recreation and (I'm fairly certain) the original, everything on the cars screen except the black on the top with the gray line is a video, the video I made just doesn't perfectly match the one they made.
- AdieuToLogic 1y ago> Yeah, it's because I had to remake the video to show on my car and figured it wasn't worth my time to make it completely identical. That makes sense. And I hope it also makes sense the discrepancies identified could cause those of us not intimate with Tesla display logic to think the recreation you made is dissimilar to the original.
- jesenpaul 1y agoHow is it legal for Tesla to remotely deactivates rapper's vehicle for singing about the Cybertruck https://grok.com/chat/3362d7ec-6eb5-49a4-a8cc-5d748a33c22b https://grok.com/chat/3362d7ec-6eb5-49a4-a8cc-5d748a33c22b
- stingraycharles 1y agoOk, I apologize, but I’ve seen so many fake posts by social media influencers / celebrities at this point that I have to ask: does anyone have a source / verification that this is actually true? It’s not necessarily that I don’t believe this would be absolutely the par of the course for Elon, I just would like to see a more credible source than a threads post of the rapper. The cease & desist letter in the threads comments looks like it’s AI generated.
- franklin_p_dyer 1y ago+1
- _2d30 1y agoI don’t think you need to be sorry. I don’t believe this at all. I would bet up to $5k through any trusted intermediary at even odds that this story is false.
- prawn 1y agoAha! A chance for the rapper in question to make money from their music!
- gnarlouse 1y agoespecially considering that the C&D letter is from August 1st. If it is real, they've been trying to get ahold of him for sometime. It was probably in the terms of service agreement. If it's real, will be an interesting lawsuit.
- BLKNSLVR 1y agoToo many people would want this to be real. It's probably just publicity for bad music from a wannabe rapper - in which case the marketing is actually much better than the music. If it is fake, it's a good one.
- AlotOfReading 1y agoIt very well could be AI generated. Many legal offices are using LLMs these days. What's the alternative here? A rapper went to the effort to publish an MV, then figured out how to display a fake disabled message in the vehicle, then faked a C&D, knowing that these actions would give Tesla a very legitimate claim against them? Ockham's razor is not favorable to the alternative.
- franklin_p_dyer 1y agoIs there any reason not to believe this is just a hoax? I am immediately skeptical I see reported only on Threads (or FB, IG, Twitter, Bluesky, etc) and not corroborated.
- willsmith72 1y agoagreed. It's on-brand for Tesla, but still looks more like a PR stunt than reality Would they really put "comply with cease & desist to reactivate" on the screen?
- aaron695 1y ago[dead]
- tim333 1y agoI don't think it's on-brand for Tesla. Why would they do that? Have they ever done anything like that? It's on brand for rappers to do stuff to get publicity though.
- prawn 1y agoI think the argument against that for the rapper is that he's pushing the Cybertruck as some tough/rich/machismo thing. Being stranded roadside is quite some distance from that. Who out there is going to want to listen to his song on the back of him suffering this kinda drama? Another argument for it being legit is that he has to know that they'd send advance warning and that it would be a combo of certified and email (to get a quicker result). I've been pursued legally and there were email/physical copies.
- ljsprague 1y agoThe rapper possibly has a sense of humor.
- FireBeyond 1y agoAbsolutely it is: This is not the first time Tesla has done it, either. Before the 3 was released, a customer found some references to it in their software and made some posts. Next thing they know, their vehicle's firmware was forcibly downgraded to a version that had no references, was forcibly version-locked at that firmware version, and had the Ethernet and OBD ports disabled. They'll also release misleading telemetry data at press conferences to throw you under the bus. In one fatal accident, on the topic of AP/FSD, at a press conference: "Well, we do the right thing, and vehicle telemetry tells us that the car was warning the driver to pay attention before the accident". When the NTSB report came out, it was found that there had been one attention warning issued, and it was eighteen minutes before the collision.
- sergiotapia 1y agoAs a model y juniper owner this is really fucked up. Full stop this will forever be in my brain when it comes time to buy my daughter her vehicle in 2 years. This is a brand destroyer for Tesla. i really hope it's fake.
- idiotsecant 1y agoThere is absolutely no reason an electric car (or any car) should be 'phoning home'. I am completely opted out of that ecosystem, all my vehicles were manufactured well before that became a thing, even my ev.
- sergiotapia 1y agoOK, it is confirmed to be fake. Thank God!
- ludjer 1y agoYes but, they do have the power to do this: https://theoffroading.com/can-tesla-shut-down-your-car-remotely/#:~:text=Tesla%E2%80%99s%20vehicle%20shutdown%20feature%2C%20also%20known%20as%20%E2%80%9CRemote,vehicles%20using%20the%20Tesla%20app%20on%20their%20smartphones. https://theoffroading.com/can-tesla-shut-down-your-car-remot... One of the reasons I refuse to own any car that can phone home.
- rogerrogerr 1y ago> This feature allows Tesla owners to remotely disable their vehicles using the Tesla app on their smartphones. This is fake news. The article reads like someone asked ChatGPT to describe “the Tesla remote shutdown feature”. Also, I have a Tesla and there is no such button in the app. Also, “theoffroading.com” is the only thing that comes up when you Google “Tesla remote shutdown app” Please do more thorough research before making statements about things you clearly don’t know anything about.
- jrflowers 1y agoImagine getting in an Uber and then dying in a pileup because your driver once posted something that bothered the owner of X™ The Everything App
- nullstyle 1y agoIf true, that pizzachit Elon deserves criminal liability of some kind. That sort of reckless behavior should be punished severely.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- lgvln 1y agoNew genius product by Elon Musk: Hardware as a Service!
- eurleif 1y agoThe signature from Dinna Eskin at the bottom of the letter appears perfectly identical to the one on this letter from 2022: https://driveteslacanada.ca/news/tesla-sends-cease-and-desist-letter-to-dan-odowd-over-the-dawn-projects-fsd-beta-videos/ https://driveteslacanada.ca/news/tesla-sends-cease-and-desis... It's possible that she copy-pastes her own signature, but this is evidence in favor of the Cybertruck incident being a hoax. The Cybertruck letter also lists her as "Sr. Director and Deputy General Counsel". But her LinkedIn page lists "Deputy General Counsel & Director, Infrastructure & CapEx" as a previous title; her current title is listed as "VP, Legal": https://www.linkedin.com/in/dinna-eskin-743a7435/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/dinna-eskin-743a7435/
- umeshunni 1y ago> But her LinkedIn page lists "Deputy General Counsel & Director, Infrastructure & CapEx" as a previous title; her current title is listed as "VP, Legal Yeah, it seems very unlikely that a legal VP would send a doc out with an outdated title.
- saurik 1y ago> It's possible that she copy-pastes her own signature... I was under the impression that that was standard practice for this sort of letter, lest merely being in this role at a company results in numerous examples of your real signature being given to a ton of random people? I mean, the original there doesn't even look like a "real" signature. (I agree that the wrong title, though, tells us this is almost certainly fake.)
- eurleif 1y agoI agree that the original doesn't look like a scan of pen-and-paper, but it looks real to me in the sense that it looks like a person made it, and it's not just a cursive font. It looks too messy, and some of the letters are too indistinct, for it to likely be a cursive font. It appears consistent with a signature entry pad peripheral, a stylus on a tablet, or similar. I would say that largely rules out a security practice; if that were the motivation, it would make more sense to use a cursive font. As I said, I do think it's possible that she copy-pastes her own signature; but if so, the motive I would expect is reducing effort.
- exabrial 1y agoMy past GM trucks I’ve removed that stupid cell module. There is literally 0 reason a car needs an Internet connection. None. It’s so bad these days I consider it a national security risk. Imagine a Ukraine like scenario where the enemy (or “friendly”) government hacks/disables all cars. This could severely disrupt underground supply lines or be used to concentrate civilians to areas for protecting military targets. I’m all for deregulation, not regulation, but monopoly laws aren’t being enforced right now and consumers do not have choices in the market.
- jrflowers 1y ago> I’m all for deregulation, not regulation, but monopoly laws aren’t being enforced This is a good point. Being against regulations as a matter of principle is not at odds with wanting regulations that a person likes bec
- theyknowitsxmas 1y agoAny issues, tablet warnings. etc?
- exabrial 1y agoon my friends 2002 and my 2008 zero issues or warnings. Haven't tried on my 2018 yet. Afraid to upgrade truck any further now because of the dumb ipads in new trucks.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- monkeyelite 1y agoI think this is fake or incomplete and our biases are making us less skeptical,
- agentictime 1y agoWhether it’s fake or not, the fact that “remote vehicle deactivation over a rap song” feels plausible says a lot about the state of ownership in 2025.
- SilverElfin 1y agoThe Tesla and other connected cars aren’t the only problems. In general devices we buy to own are becoming really more like rentals. We need new laws against this.
- ergonaught 1y agoIf true, there should be prison terms and the end of Tesla as an ongoing concern. There won't be, but there should be.
- romaaeterna 1y agoWhen evaluating the truth value of claims like this, consider a few things-- 1. "Comply with Cease & Desist To Re-activate" is rather unlikely for anyone to program as a standard error message. It's also in a slightly different font from the previous part of the message. The following part of the message says "Update Failed" 2. The creator of the video (a rap video creator) could easily generate the situation by playing a YouTube video (that he created) on his screen 3. The letter (possibly based on a real cease & desist) has all of the information concerning the deactivation in a single paragraph, which would be easy to insert
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- neilv 1y agoFlagging because I see no news coverage of this. Though there is a lot of news coverage of the Cybertruck that was allegedly a gift from Elon Muck to a Chechen warlord being remotely disabled.
- neilv 1y agoApologies for unintentional typo in the name.
- TheAlchemist 1y agoAs a certified Tesla bear, I would also bet that this is a fake. It does say quite a lot about what people think of Tesla though, if this gets almost 200 upvotes.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- modeless 1y agoThis is embarrassing, and everyone who commented here without skepticism should seriously examine their priors.
- nunez 1y agoThe screen says UPDATE FAILED RETURN TO DEALER. I don't believe this is possible with Teslas as their OTA updater can do rollbacks on failed updates. You also can't perform an update when the car isn't in Park. Also, Tesla doesn't have dealers their cars can be returned to, so...
- pluc 1y agoI love how Threads, a multi-billion dollar company, just infinitely loops if you don't let it set its spying cookies.
- maxcan 1y agoIn addition to all the other evidence pointing to this being a fake, Tesla is VERY clear that they don't have dealers.
- ongytenes 1y agoCould be the vehicle stopped for some other reason and the rapper falsely accused Tesla. It would help as PR for his song as people will want to hear it. Note most gas powered cars now can do this. General Motors has been able to remotely deactivate vehicles since 2009 using their OnStar technology. Biden administration has mandated all cars to have this technology.
- fattire 1y agoTesla claims this is a hoax on Twitter. https://x.com/Tesla/status/1954992987223757149 https://x.com/Tesla/status/1954992987223757149