On January 26, Tesla officially sued Chen Zhengang (Xiao Gang), an Internet celebrity with tens of millions of fans on a short video platform, for the original reason of the lawsuit being that the latter used the information network to carry out defamation. Tesla authorities subsequently confirmed that this was indeed the case and had formally filed a lawsuit with the court.
Previously, the "Auto Professional Network" reported that Tesla had sued a number of rights protection car owners after the autumn, and also warned some self-media in private messages that "a lawsuit has been filed in the Beijing court", and the reasons for these lawsuits are related to suspected "brake failure". Compared with the long talk of the previous indicted object, the party "Xiao Gang Xuechang" only responded with six words on the social platform: Okay, I know.
Who is the target of Tesla's lawsuit this time, Xiao Gang Senior? What exactly did it stir up Tesla's nerves?
Suspected of faking brake failures?
The reason for Tesla's lawsuit against "Xiaogang Senior" comes from April 29 to 30, 2021, Xiaogang Senior has posted two videos on the Internet called "Use Your Own Two Cars, Do an Emergency Brake Test". At that time, shortly after the Shanghai Auto Show rights protection incident, the discussion of "Tesla brake failure" reached its peak.
The video content shows that "Xiao Gang Xuechang" personally drove the Tesla Model 3 and Xiaopeng P7 models, driving in the closed road to the paper fake car and humanoid doll that had been placed in advance, releasing the accelerator pedal and not doing any braking operation when the speed reached 50km/h, and only relying on the vehicle's AEB (Automatic Emergency Braking System) to actively brake, without colliding with obstacles is regarded as "test" success.
The test results showed that the Xiaopeng P7 could automatically brake when facing the stationary obstacle in front of it at 50km/h, while the Tesla Model 3 hit the obstacle twice due to "no brake reaction". For the test results, "Xiao Gang Senior" bluntly said that Tesla could not stop.
After the release of the video, some careful netizens found that when the "Xiaogang Senior" "tested" the Tesla Model 3, he was suspected of stepping on the acceleration pedal during the AEB intervention. Netizens said that from the video, it can be found that in the "test" stage that should be taxied by the vehicle and waiting for AEB to intervene, there is still an "energy bar" display above the central control screen of tesla Model 3, and a fainter "energy bar" can be seen before it is about to collide with obstacles, which means that the car has the power to output, and then speculates that "Xiao Gang Xuechang" has stepped on the acceleration pedal of Tesla Model 3 many times in this process.
It is worth mentioning that a car emperor has also used the Tesla Model 3 and Xiaopeng P7 to do similar tests, and the results are completely opposite, that is, Tesla Model 3 can pass the test, while Xiaopeng P7 is not satisfactory.
Is Xiao Gang a "recharge gang"?
On Tesla's lawsuit against "Xiao Gang Xuechang", someone on the Internet posted that Xiaogang Xuechang is actually "recharged", because looking at its 572 short video works, it can be found that as long as there is commercial cooperation with him, the number of video works will account for a considerable proportion, and those who have not cooperated with him will have stampede and smear works, such as Tesla.
From this point of view, Xiaogang has cooperated with partners such as NIO, Ideal Auto, Gaohe Automobile, Honda, Volkswagen, and BYD. However, compared with Xiaopeng Motors, these partners are second-level partners to "Xiaogang Senior".
Paradoxically, there are also rumors on the Internet that netizens exposed the chat records of "Xiaogang Senior", and the chat records show that "Xiaogang Senior" privately lamented that the control of Tesla Model 3 is really good, and said that the reason for rumoring Tesla is that "the key is not to give me money." However, the chat history was transmitted online, and the editor of the "Automotive Professional Network" did not see it on the Internet.
The editor only saw that someone sent a screenshot of the chat of an insider familiar with the "Xiaogang Xuechang" company in the morning, and the chat screenshot showed that "Xiaogang Xuechang" and Xiaopeng Automobile had an interest relationship, and there were 2-3 cooperation projects every year, and the average unit price of the project was about 400,000.
Regarding Tesla's lawsuit against Xiao Gang, a well-known legal blogger revealed that there are two key problems in this case. First, is the big V evaluation true, accurate, objective and fair, and is there any counterfeiting? Second, whether the big V directly or indirectly charges the other party money, because it is difficult to ensure the accuracy of the evaluation with the task. "If you don't take the money and the video is not fake, then the big V lawsuit can still be optimistic."
What is the follow-up of the matter, "Automotive Professional Network" will continue to pay attention to.