Shropshire Star

Elon Musk starts fresh row over cave diver slur

Tesla boss had previously apologised to the British expatriate who helped rescue Thai schoolboys

Published
Supporting image for story
Technology summit in Dublin

Tesla chief Elon Musk has reignited a row over a British expatriate who helped rescue 12 schoolboys trapped in a cave in Thailand.

Musk referred to diver Vern Unsworth as a “pedo guy” on Twitter at the time of the rescue in July, after the British expat called his offer to save the children and their football coach with a Tesla submarine a “PR stunt”.

At the time, Unsworth also said that Musk could “stick his submarine where it hurts”.

The Tesla CEO was then forced to apologise by investors in his company and in the face of mounting public pressure as well as possible legal action from Unsworth.

Yesterday, Twitter user Drew Olanoff, going by the handle @yoda, tweeted the Tesla boss stating that “your dedication to facts and truth would have been wonderful if applied to that time when you called someone a pedo”.

In response, Musk tweeted: “You don’t think it’s strange he hasn’t sued me? He was offered free legal services.” The 47-year-old business magnate then continued to ask Olanoff if he had investigated why Unsworth hadn’t followed up on legal proceedings after the Tesla boss’s initial use of the term in the now-deleted tweet.

Unsworth has so far declined to say anything about the new row.

It’s the latest in a series of social media disasters for the Tesla boss, including an announcement that he was taking the company private, which he has since gone back on, and calling the boss of an online Tesla critic to complain about them.