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Fur flies after Tesla CEO Elon Musk calls British diver in Thai cave rescue 'pedo' in Twitter tirade

Published: 14:57 16 Jul 2018 BST

Tesla CEO and founder Elon Musk
Vernon Unsworth, became a target for criticizing Elon Musk's "kid-size submarine" rescue plan idea

Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) founder and CEO Elon Musk was in hot water Sunday after launching a surprisingly vicious attack on British diver Vern Unsworth, who helped rescue the boys trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand, baselessly calling him a “pedo” on Twitter.

It all started innocuously with the billionaire offering a “kid-size submarine” to help rescue 12 boys and their coach after they became trapped in a flooded cave in Tham Luang in northern Thailand. A Thai official said the equipment, built by Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp., wasn’t practical and politely declined the help. 

Musk still traveled to the site, but the boys were rescued by Thai divers and an international group of volunteers.

British diver Vern Unsworth, a volunteer who played a seminal role in organizing the rescue, said in in an interview Friday with CNN that the submarine was “a PR stunt.” Unsworth, who has spent years exploring the Tham Luang cave system, said Musk's submarine wouldn't have made it past the first 50 meters into the cave.

“It just had absolutely no chance of working,” said Unsworth. “He had no conception of what the cave passage was like. The submarine, I believe, was about 5ft 6in long, rigid, so it wouldn’t have gone round corners or round any obstacles.”

Stung, Musk fired back in a series of tweets, without specifically naming Unsworth. The Tesla boss then said he would make a video to prove that the mini-sub could have helped in the rescue. “Sorry pedo guy, you really did ask for it,” he wrote in a tweet which is now deleted.

Sadly, the serious sexual accusation was leveled without evidence or context. No evidence has since emerged either to substantiate Musk’s claim of pedophilia.Vernon Unsworth told the Guardian on Monday he was “astonished and very angry” at the attack.

“I believe he’s called me a paedophile,” Unsworth said at the cave site. “I think people realise what sort of guy [Musk] is.”

Asked if he would consider taking legal action against Musk, he told reporters: “Yes, it’s not finished.”

Musk has 22.3 million followers on Twitter and exploits the social media platform in the same vitriolic fashion as President Trump to provide an extraordinary unfiltered insight into what he is doing and thinking in real time.  

“He’s used the social network to promote his companies, spar with short sellers who are betting against Tesla shares and needle journalists who question the businesses’ prospects,” observed Bloomberg.

Tesla sales bump in Russia

Separately, Svyaznoy, co-owned by Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov’s wireless carrier MegaFon PJSC, said it received orders for 236 Teslas in June, the first month it started sales jointly with importer Moscow Tesla Club, reported Bllomberg.

It’s an impressive sales bump given that this compares with about 300 Teslas registered in the country since 2014.

“The uptick in sales comes even as the Californian company lists no stores or Tesla-run charging stations in Russia,” reported Bloomberg.

Contact Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com

Follow her on Twitter: @UttaraProactive

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