A video on Instagram claims to show Tesla CEO Elon Musk announcing a new feature on the electric car.
“Yeah, so the newest Tesla feature is that the seat will take a high resolution scan of your balls,” Musk appears to say in the March 27 video, which includes captions of his supposed comments. “You can then use your ball print to biometrically unlock and start the car. We call the tech ‘particular testicular detection.’”
This video is a deepfake. It was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook.)
Using reverse-image search with a screenshot from the video, PolitiFact found that the footage is from Musk’s March 3 interview at the World Government Summit, an annual event held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, by a nonprofit organization of the same name. (Learn more about how we conduct reverse-image searches.)
In the real video, Musk did not reference “particular testicular detection.” Instead, the video transcript on YouTube shows that during the 35-minute interview, he discussed topics including misinformation on Twitter and the search for a new Twitter CEO, the need for safety in artificial intelligence and his fears of a so-called single-world government — which made several news headlines.
We rate the claim that Musk was talking about a new feature to unlock and start a Tesla Pants on Fire!
Truth-o-meter Ruling
IF YOUR TIME IS SHORT
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk did not say this; the video is a deepfake.
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The footage is from an interview Musk gave at the March 2023 World Government Summit in Dubai. The transcript shows Musk did not mention such a feature.
Statement
Context
a videoSpeaker/Target
Statement Date
Our Sources
Instagram post, March 27, 2023
World Government Summit accessed April 10, 2023
PolitiFact, Biden wasn’t touching Olivia Rodrigo’s shoulders, July 22, 2021
World Government Summit, A Conversation with Elon Musk 2.0, March 3, 2023
Insider, Elon Musk said he fears a single world government could lead to the 'collapse' of civilization while speaking at a World Government Summit, Feb. 15, 2023
Translations
Language: en