Elon Musk Just Got Sued Over His Robotaxi Rollout

The production company behind Blade Runner 2049 has sued Elon Musk over the recent rollout of Tesla's new self-driving Robotaxi. Alcon Entertainment says it rejected a request from Musk to use imagery from the 2017 movie at the vehicle's launch party, reports the New York Times. "He did it anyway," the lawsuit states. More precisely, Tesla allegedly used images created through artificial intelligence that mirrored scenes from the movie, per the Hollywood Reporter. One featured "a Ryan Gosling look-alike," says Alcon.

Tesla teamed up with Warner Bros., which released the movie, for the Robotaxi launch, and the lawsuit also names the studio as a defendant. Alcon says it rejected the request because it does not want the movie associated with Musk because of his "extreme political and social views," per the lawsuit. It likens the controversy to an earlier one involving Scarlett Johansson, who turned down a request from OpenAI to license her voice. After her refusal, the company generated a voice that sounded identical to hers. The new lawsuit accuses Musk, Tesla, and Warner Bros. of copyright infringement, per Variety. (The director of I, Robot, meanwhile, thinks Tesla ripped off the design from his movie.)