Elon Musk's ‘Pedo Guy’ Trial, Uber’s Crime Report, and More Car News This Week

Plus, the Air Force 3D prints parts for old planes, flying car execs consider the little people, and self-driving cars learn about selfish humans.
Elon Musk getting into a car at night surrounded by photographers and journalists
A jury found Elon Musk isn't liable for defaming Vernon Unsworth, the man whom the Tesla CEO called “pedo guy” on Twitter. Photograph: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Another week, another court case over an Elon Musk tweet. OK, sure, this is only the second time that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO’s love for the platform has gotten him into real legal trouble. But what played out in a Los Angeles federal courtroom this week was certainly weird, and involved Musk justifying the fact that he called a British man named Vernon Unsworth “pedo guy,” which led to a defamation suit. The trial looked to turn on what that phrase actually meant—and it turned in Musk’s favor. On Friday afternoon, the jury found the CEO is not liable for defaming Unsworth.

In more significant news this week, Uber put out its first report on the violence that has occurred on the platform. Also, Waymo’s self-driving service hit the App Store, and the flying car industry wondered whether the public actually wants flying cars. It’s been a week. Let’s get you caught up.

Want to receive this roundup as an email every week? Sign up here!

Headlines

Stories you might have missed from WIRED this week

Zero-Gravity Tire Swap of the Week

The awards go to the Red Bull Formula 1 team, which changed a tire within an Ilyushin II-76 MDK cosmonaut training plane—aka a “vomit comet”—in, yes, zero gravity. The team has the world record for tire swaps on land, at 1.82 seconds, and it did not come close to beating that on the vomit comet. But no one barfed, everyone made adjustments, and it kind of seems that the team had fun? You be the judge:

Video: Redbull
Stat of the Week

87%

The fall in battery prices between 2010 and 2019, according to a new Bloomberg New Energy Finance survey. The report attributes that gigantic drop to order size, the growth in electric vehicle sales, and improved engineering. The report projects that prices will drop even by 2023, from $156 per kilowatt-hour today to $100 per kilowatt-hour. Those decreases mean big things for tech like electric cars and solar panels, which are already changing the way American companies do business.

Required Reading

News from elsewhere on the internet

In the Rearview

Essential stories from WIRED’s canonFlashback to the last time Elon Musk made an appearance in court, when he was in New York defending himself against the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s charge that he had ignored the terms of a settlement by, what else, tweeting.