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Who is Arthur Bates Jr? Tesla records man faking injuries, claiming he was hit by car

The Slidell Police Department responded to a call at about 4 pm on Friday concerning a man who had been injured in an alleged hit-and-run
PUBLISHED SEP 7, 2021
47-year-old Arthur Bates Jr. (pictured) told police a Tesla had backed into him (Slidell Police Department)
47-year-old Arthur Bates Jr. (pictured) told police a Tesla had backed into him (Slidell Police Department)

SLIDELL, LOUISIANA: A Louisiana man, who accused a Tesla driver of backing into him at a busy gas station and fleeing the scene, has now been charged with making a false report after the intelligent vehicle recorded him faking the incident.

The Slidell Police Department responded to a call at about 4 pm on Friday, September 3, concerning a man who had been injured in an alleged hit-and-run. Upon arrival at the scene, officers found 47-year-old Arthur Bates Jr., who told them a Tesla driver had backed the car into him at a gas station parking lot, Fox News reported.

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"Bates was complaining of back, leg, and neck injuries, resulting in an ambulance and fire truck to be dispatched to the location," the Slidell Police Department said in a statement. "Unbeknownst to Bates, Tesla’s record all the footage of their cameras," the department continued. "When Slidell Police officers reviewed the Tesla’s video footage, it became apparent that Bates was lying and staged the entire event."

Authorities released video footage from the incident. The clip showed Bates walking across the parking lot from the pumps at a considerable distance from the Tesla. However, he then comes up and stops just off the left rear fender of the vehicle. The Tesla starts to back up and stops before Bates steps into the back bumper and falls, later pretending to be in pain. The driver subsequently steps into the camera view, removes Bates's foot from the bumper, and drives away from the scene.



 

The driver of the Tesla "stated that Bates intentionally jumped behind his vehicle and staged the accident," the Slidell Police Department said of the incident. "Bates subsequently admitted to fabricating the entire event" and is now facing one count of False Swearing with the Intent to Cause an Emergency Response, the department added.

Last month, MEAWW reported how Musk announced his radical project Tesla bot to 'eliminate boring tasks' by 2022. On August 19, the eccentric entrepreneur used Tesla's 'AI Day' to show off a new humanoid-like robot aptly named the Tesla Bot. "It's intended to be friendly and navigate through a world built for humans," Musk said.

The Tesla Bot, which bears similarity to the 'iRobot' film's humanoid droids, doesn't (yet) have a face. The 5 foot 8-inch humanoid-like machine will weigh 125 pounds because it is made from "lightweight materials". Musk didn't details what those materials were, but then again the bot's reveal wasn't a public release. Looking very much like a person, the Tesla Bot will be powered by Tesla's neural networks and Dojo advanced supercomputer. 



 

"Basically, if you think about what we’re doing right now with cars, Tesla is arguably the world’s biggest robotics company because our cars are like semi-sentient robots on wheels," Musk said, and added, "it kind of makes sense to put that on to a humanoid form." The bot is designed to take over all our "boring" repetitive tasks, like shopping. It can carry up to 45 pounds, so getting your groceries shouldn't be an issue.

Internally, the machine will have multi-cam video, Tesla's Full Self Driving computer, force feedback sensing, and a screen for "useful information" where the face will be. While Musk has rallied against AI in the past, he defended the product saying, "if Tesla doesn’t do it, someone else will," and that he wanted to do it "safely".

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