UK Court Rules in Favour of Top Gear in Tesla Suit
A UK judge has ruled in favour of the BBC's Top Gear in a libel case filed by Tesla.
Earlier this year, Tesla filed a lawsuit against Top Gear alleging libel following the airing of an segment that featured one of Tesla's roadsters. Jeremy Clarkson said in the 2008 episode that the roadster had run out of battery after just 55 miles on the Top Gear track, almost a quarter of the 200 miles Tesla claims it's capable of. Tesla claims the episode was staged and that it continues to affect the reputation of the car and company; The company also highlighted the fact that the episode has been featured on re-runs since the original airing three years ago, not to mention other countries and through the BBC's iPlayer.
Today, the Guardian reports that Mr Justice Tugendhat yesterday rejected the claims of libel, essentially saying that people should know an episode of Top Gear when they see one.
"There is a contrast between the style of driving and the nature of the [Top Gear] track as compared with the conditions on a public road […] are so great that no reasonable person could understand that the performance on the [Top Gear] track is capable of a direct comparison with a public road," he said.
Tudendhat still has to rule on Tesla's claims of malicious falsehood. The Guardian reports that he is expected to hand down a judgement on that claim in the coming weeks.
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Why would Top Gear 'stage' a car braking down and having a failed battery?
All Tesla did is draw more attention to their failure and made millions more people aware of what happened. Oh, that and pay their own AND Top Gear's legal fees.
Oops.
Hold on so why are they doing this? They say it does 200 miles (and that's probably including city driving and whatnot; general every day driving) then TopGear do a test where the car is probably using full power almost constantly and as a result it does less than what is claimed. So what? Surely you can distinguish between driving full throttle all the time and what you'd use in the real world.
Sounds pretty reasonable to get a quater of the expected performance when pushing a car to it's limits...
Just think of usual cars, the faster (And more aggressive) you drive, the more petrol is consumed.
So if you don't like a review just sue? I think this pointless case has done more harm to Tesla's reputation then showing that thrashing a car around a track hurts fuel/power consumption.
I believe tesla should of won, after all it is their company.
It's not unreasonable to say that some viewers would jump to conclusions about the car despite the differing performance conditions.
Science and general perception aside, I'd side with Tesla purely on the basis that Clarkson is a cotal tunt.