July 24, 2025 • 24 mins
(July 24, 2025)
False advertising from Tesla? California is calling Elon out for misleading buyers.Handel goes AI talking about money and tariffs. The host of ‘Later with Mo Kelly’ joins Bill to talk about box office grosses not returning to pre-covid levels even by 2029.
False advertising from Tesla? California is calling Elon out for misleading buyers.Handel goes AI talking about money and tariffs. The host of ‘Later with Mo Kelly’ joins Bill to talk about box office grosses not returning to pre-covid levels even by 2029.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six fortyfi.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
AM six forty Bill Handle here on a Thursday morning,
July twenty four and some of the stories we are
looking at is southern California. Edison has it's instituting a
fund to pay victims of the fire, even though negligence
(00:31):
hasn't been established. The amount of money necessary to pay
hasn't been established, but they're doing it preemptively.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Elon Musk.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
A lot of people hate Elon Musk, a lot of
investors hate Elon Musk's Elon Musk, a lot of former
employees of the federal government hate Elon Musk. And now
the Department of Motor Vehicles State of California, well, it's
always hated Elon Musk, but Musk Tesla has been sued
(01:03):
by the TMV among other lawsuits, which I'll talk about
in a minute.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
And here's why.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Musk has been known over years for making these extravagant
promises about the capabilities of the cars and for falling
way short. So lawsuit by the DMV is accusing Tesla
of leading buyers to believe, and we've seen this before,
that Teslas can operate autonomously self driving, which by the way,
(01:32):
they can't do, which amounts to false advertising. And so
with the DMV, what are the damages here, Well, the
DMV simply wants to bar Tesla from selling cars in
the state for thirty days. That is the damages that
they are seeking. And there's a five day hearing which
began on Monday in Oakland before an administrative law judge,
(01:54):
a DMV administrative lodjudge, and Tesla there is defending its claims.
Now thirty days, I mean, come on, how punishing is that?
Speaker 3 (02:07):
What's a big deal.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
The state counts for thirty percent of US domestic sales,
the US accounts for roughly half of worldwide sales, and
through June of this year, Tesla sales have fallen more
than eighteen percent in California compared to the same period
last year, and a lot of it is because Musk's
engagement with right wing politics and his online embrace of racist,
(02:33):
anti Semitic views.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Let those fly on his website.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Doge. What's happened at Doge? I don't know if you've
seen those bumper stickers on Tesla. I bought this before
Musk went crazy, and the number of Teslas that are
now on sale used Tesla's you can buy one fairly cheap.
And Tesla's EV market share fell in the state well
still really high. Went from fifty three percent in the
(03:00):
first half of twenty twenty four and it's forty five percent.
So it still sells half the cars here in the
country or in California. And it's had to fight accusation
of false claims.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Before, and lots of them.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Why because you have these overly optimistic, overconfident forecast by
Musk of both sales and technological capabilities.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
That's all over the website.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
For example, Musk said in twenty sixteen, within two years,
you'll be able to summon your car from across the country.
It'll meet you wherever your phone is, and it will
automatically charge itself along the entire journey.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Guess what that doesn't happen.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
In twenty twenty, he told an engineering conference that he
would quote he was confidence. We will have confident, we
will have the basic functionality for level five autonomy.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Complete this year.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
What is Level five, find by the Society of Automotive Engineers,
the highest self driving category that a vehicle can operate
without a human driver ever taking control in all conditions.
No level five cars out there yet, and some engineers
(04:17):
are saying we are far far from it. When you
look at the autonomous cars today, they don't reach well.
Some reach level to very few reach level three instead
of five. So in twenty sixteen, on Tesla's website, there
was a car stopping at a red light, obeying traffic signals,
(04:41):
and there was the caption the person in the driver's
seat is only there for legal reasons. He is not
doing anything. The car is driving itself. Well, in a lawsuit,
a Tesla engineer testified, well, yeah, we had mapped a
route for the car and it didn't have the capabilities
(05:02):
that were shown in the video. Twenty twenty three, a
Tesla shareholder filed a lawsuit saying here are more than
twenty false or misleading statements Musk or Tesla made about
the self driving technology, its safety, and its capabilities. And
(05:24):
this was a shareholder lawsuit saying that my investment in
Tesla has either decreased in value or has not increased
based on these statements that were made by Musk which
are not true. In twenty twenty three, there was a
podcast and Musk claim that by the end of the year,
(05:46):
a Tesla car will be able to find you in
a parking lot, pick you up, take you all the
way to your destination without an intervention. I am certain
of that, and that's not a question mark. Well, so
far California DMV, among others, is claiming, no, that's not possible,
(06:09):
certainly not in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
So what is Tesla's defense to all of this?
Speaker 2 (06:16):
You would think there is no defense, right, he says,
and none of it is true, or a lot of
it is not true. Well, guess what, There really is
a defense here. And now we go a little bit
into handle on the law, or I explain a legal defense,
which is kind of interesting. And there have been tons
of lawsuits on that one going on with a lawsuit
(06:39):
against Tesla, and the DMV has filed a lawsuit, and
plaintiffs have filed lawsuits, and various organizations have file lawsuits
against Tesla, mainly arguing that all of the claims about
autonomous driving are bunk, they just aren't true, making wild claims.
(07:02):
So what is his defense, Because there is a defense here, and.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
That is.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
That this is puffery. And let me explain what puffery is.
Puffery is allowed in the law. And in this case
we're talking about corporations, companies that are making claims, and
there is a difference between misleading straight out misleading, making
statements to confuse people or to buy products, and using
(07:34):
false information, making up information and things like we're the
greatest in the world, we're the number one company. Well,
who determines that, And that's called puffery. We're the best
out there. That is puffery that is allowed under the
(07:55):
law because you're going to exaggerate that and you're not.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Making a specific claim. Now, the problem.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Is is that he makes specific claims. For example, in
twenty sixteen, he said, within two years of Tesla, you'll
be able to summon your car from across the country.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
It'll meet you wherever your phone is.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
It will just automatically charge itself along the entire journey. Well,
that's a little tough. Those are statements and that's not puffrey.
I doubt that the court is going to deem that puffrey.
It's just too specific. The claim is we're the best
(08:37):
car in the world. We are by far the most
driveable car.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Whatever.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Any kind of sort of generic and puffery is based
on exactly that. Word, we're just puffing up our position.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
But there are way.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Too many of these statements. So Wells Fargo had the
same problem. In twenty eighteen. They had a shareholder lawsuit
saying that the bank's claim it was working to court
restore trust among its customers after a whole string of scandals,
that that claim restore trust was false. The bank said
(09:16):
it was puffery so generic, and I agree with this.
By the way, they couldn't cause a reasonable investor to
rely upon them. Wells Fargo settled the lawsuit for three
hundred million dollars. They weren't going to go to trial
on that. And by the way, that I thought was
really puffery. So California Authorities a DMV filed the case
(09:38):
against Tessela in July twenty twenty two. Four components, number
one labeling the autonomous driving functions as autopilot and full
self driving capability nope, and that customers who buy cars
relying on that are being lied to. Also two bits
of language on the website. One says the system is
(10:03):
designed to be able to conduct short and long distance
trips with no action required by the person in the
driver's seat, and the other one said all you'll need
to do is to get in and tell your car
where to go, and your testa will figure out the
optimal route navigating urban streets, complex interaction intersections, and freeways.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
No.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
No, although I'll tell you what the company did say
in a brief and a trial brief that it's autopilot
and full self driving. Descriptions have always been qualified by
warnings to users that the features require active drivers supervision
and in fact do not make the vehicle autonomous. Which
(10:49):
is kind of fun because in one sentence the vehicles
are autonomous, and then down at the bottom, well, they're
really not autonomous. The other thing Tesla is saying that
the frase this is that are being used to describe
Tesla are really only on an aspirational web page designed
to recruit engineers, not being aimed at buyers. All we
(11:13):
want to do is recruit engineers. And even though the
claims are not actual factual claims, not meant for the public,
not meant for people who buy Tesla's well, I got
news for Tesla, and this is going to be a
tough one. There is a lawsuit that was brought by
four families who were killed. Members were either grievously injured
(11:39):
or killed by Tesla's who blew through intersections. And again
Tesla said, puffery, we are exaggerating. This is not factual. Well,
a judge did rule quote a reasonable person. A reasonable
jury could could find that Tesla acted and reckless dis
(12:00):
regard of human life for the sake of developing their
product and maximizing profit. Now that's not to say that
the jury is.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Going to agree with that.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
What the judge did after emotion to toss out the
case said uh uh, because a jury could find reasonably
that Tesla is at fault. The case goes forward. And
another interesting part of that case is the judge cleared
the plaintiffs, the family members, to go after punitive damages
(12:33):
in the case. That's no small deal. So I think
Tesla's going to get nailed on all of this. I
think it's defense of puffery does not fly, Absolutely does
not fly. You notice that when I talk about my
advice that I give to you, I always disclaim, always disclaim,
(12:56):
at every minute of that case or minute of this segment,
going in, going out marginal legal advice. I do not
want to be accused of actually telling you that I
know what I'm talking about even Puffrey.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
All right. Now, Yesterday, this is fun.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Yesterday we did a segment in which AI basically did
the entire segment for us, using my voice, using Amy's voice,
using Will's voice to do traffic and news, and then
my segment completely completely done by artificial intelligence.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
I think is chat chat cheept.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
So Joe Larsgaard, who is supposed to be with us
today is not.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
He's on vacation.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
So I'm gonna do a segment, okay, except I'm not
gonna do a segment. We're gonna bring artificial insemination back.
So here's what we're gonna do.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
I keep on saying in semination. I keep on saying
insemination because that is where my mind is. And I
do apologize for that because I spend thirty five years
in third party reproductive law, and that's what we did
for thirty five years.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
I've actually done it a lot longer than that.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
That's a personal note that I'll talk about you talk
to you about some other time. All right, So artificial
intelligence we're going to use to do the Joel Larsguard segment,
of which I'm going to do so kick back. I'm
going to I'm going to go get a sandwich. I'm
going to relax, get a drink, and just you know,
(14:40):
take the segment and enjoy. Here is artificial not in semination,
artificial intelligence doing a segment that Joel lars Guard would
probably do. Welcome back to the bill Handle show. Let'
let's discuss what's been making headlines. Tariffs. These are import
(15:04):
taxes and duties impacting both your wallet and the global economy.
The President supports these tariffs, stating they level the playing field.
Recent news includes a tariff deal with Japan. Japan will
now pay reciprocal tariffs to the US at a fifteen
percent rate according to KFI AM six forty. This rate
(15:26):
is lower than some threatened rates, but higher than the
near two percent rate on Japanese imports before Trump's second
term according to World Bank data. So is it a
win that depends? In exchange? For these tariffs, Japan agreed
to open its economy to US products such as trucks, rice,
and agricultural goods. Plus they'll supposedly invest five hundred and
fifty billion dollars in the US economy. The president did
(15:49):
not specify where the money will go. However, the President's
August first deadline for other countries to avoid tariff rates
is approaching. Analysts warned that higher prices could affect everyday purchases,
including coffee, shoes, and appliances, if these tariffs are implemented.
The Journal of Commerce reports that carriers are pulling trans
Pacific capacity due to the August tariff deadline. This means
(16:11):
shippers are moving cargo as quickly as possible and ships
may not be arriving. This creates uncertainty, delays and potential
problems for businesses. The Asian Development Bank, according to the
Journal of Commerce, also warned that rising tariffs and trade
friction are reducing intra Asia growth prospects. This is a
global domino effect. Companies like st Microelectronics list changes in
(16:34):
global trade policies, including the adoption and expansion of tariffs
and trade barriers, as a potential adverse impact on their
product demand.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
This impacts real businesses.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
The argument for tariffs is to defend domestic producers, avoid
job losses, and ensure national economic security.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Yeah, bring that down, And if you've been listening.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Wake up, okay, just wake up, because even so that
was artificial intelligence. Didn't sound very intelligent to me, Am,
I that dumb. I think it sounded intelligence, but it
didn't sound like you.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
No, it didn't you.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
No, of course it was, but it it didn't quite
have the inflection it did it's going to learn.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
We're going to play with this again.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
That happened to be incredibly boring, and it happened to
be very convoluted. It happened to be just run of
the mill. Gee, is that really what this show is about?
I think I've just described our morning show. Wow, okay, anyway,
I just wanted to do that.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Did it work?
Speaker 2 (17:44):
I don't know, but you're right, Amy, that isn't That
one isn't me. You can tell that it was a
little bit off. I would you give this a B
or a C plus? That one definitely is a C plus. Yea.
It just sounded kind of monotone and it did. Yeah,
it didn't not animated like you are. No, it didn't
(18:06):
grab my inflections. It didn't grab my excitement about artificial
insemination as opposed artificial intelligence. It just wasn't the same
this time around. Yesterday was much much better. All right,
So here's what we're gonna do, and we're gonna try
it again probably in the next week or two, and
see if we can get it even.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
More miserable and more boring.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
And by the way, I'm going to submit this one
to this particular segment to the National Association of Anesthesiologists,
because they have an annual award every year for the
most boring segment on radio where they actually use those
segments during surgery. Okay, Well, Kelly is on the air
(18:53):
here at KFI Monday through Friday, seven pm set to
ten pm every single night.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Morning, Mo, good morning. And the AI almost fooled me Bill.
I said something sounds off with Bill today, and then
I realized it was AI.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Did you? I mean it actually just you thought it
was me originally.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Well, when I first tuned in and I'm thinking, like,
why is Bill just reading this text in this copy
in such a boring way? And then I realized, oh,
it must be some sort of chat GPT or something
like that.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
That's exactly what it was.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Absolutely, and yesterday we did the same thing because I'm
playing with this and we're hoping that this program, this
algorithm learns and it is not. Yesterday it was far
better than today, So we're gonna have a good time
with this. I've just become enamored with this stuff, all right,
A statement here that I found kind of interesting and
(19:46):
I wanted to go to you because this is your wheelhouse.
Box office grosses are not going to return to pre
COVID levels even by twenty twenty nine, according to a
new report.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
That does not bode well for movie making.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
It's iterating the cost is so astronomical to make a
film is sort of the death knevel of movies in
the movie theater kind of thing, or so what.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
I think, Bill, You and I were closer to being
on the same page as this than anything, because I
don't even believe the box office is going to rebound
by twenty twenty nine, if only because the trajectory of
the business is such that fewer movies are being made
now to be specifically in theaters.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
When you talk about box office.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
More and more movies are made for streaming, and there
are fewer and fewer movie theaters movie houses around the country.
The mom and pops are not around anymore. Even the
big chains are having to contract to a certain degree.
And also, if the gross box office numbers should grow
to twenty nineteen levels by twenty twenty nine. That's an
inflationary mark, not a general a genuine look at what.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
The box office is. So I disagree with this altogether.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
One of the things, and you and I both talked
about this, I was such a movie not I mean
I still am. You know, I love watching movies and
TV shows, mainly documentaries, but I used to go to
two movies a week. And if there are enough people
like me, boy, that is not healthy for the movie
theaters or even the industry itself.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Well, the industry has been heavily dependent on summer movies
and summer blockbusters generally since the pandemic have underperformed, and
that's part of the reason as well why the gross
box office numbers have contracted, and it doesn't seem like
studios are willing to spend the same type of money
for all of these blockbusters. Marvel has pulled back, Warner
(21:41):
Brothers has pulled back. Like Marvel, only had two major
releases in the year of twenty twenty five, and they're
trying to limit the number of releases they have going forward.
So that ought to tell you that the number of
movies is not going to be the same, and also
the amount of expenditure overall for movies is not going
to be the same.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Yeah, no surprise.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
All right, MO, we'll talk again next week. Thanks as
always for your insight talk too, all right, Yeah, we do.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
All right, that's it.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
We're done, guys, and we will try the artificial intelligence
one more time, or two more times, or three more times.
I'm really getting enamored with this stuff now. I'm still
taking phone calls Tuesdays and Thursday. I do exactly that
where I'm gonna give you marginal legal advice off the air,
so you can call me at eight seven seven five
(22:30):
two zero eleven fifty eight seven seven five two zero
eleven fifty. And the same rules always apply in terms
of calling in. If you are unintelligible, you're at the
top of the list. If you are particularly stupid and unintelligible,
you are even further up the list. So it's great
(22:51):
fun the number eight seven seven five two zero eleven fifty.
No breaks, no commercials, no weather, no traffic, no patience.
Put all that together and we go through them pretty quickly.
Eight seven seven off the air. I want to keep
on telling you about that. Eight seven seven five two
zero eleven fifty guess what we do this all over
(23:13):
again tomorrow morning. Amy and Will are here for wake
up call. I join at six o'clock. Neil is back
next week, and then, of course Cono and Ann are
here attempting to make the show run well on time
and smooth, and needless to say, they don't succeed very often.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
This Gary and Shannon up next. KFI A, Oh, don't forget.
Did I give the phone numbers already? I did?
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Eight seven, seven, five, two, zero, eleven fifty. This is
KFI AM six forty. You've been listening to the Bill
Handle Show. Catch My Show Monday through Friday, six am
to nine am, and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio
app
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six fortyfi.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
AM six forty Bill Handle here on a Thursday morning,
July twenty four and some of the stories we are
looking at is southern California. Edison has it's instituting a
fund to pay victims of the fire, even though negligence
(00:31):
hasn't been established. The amount of money necessary to pay
hasn't been established, but they're doing it preemptively.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Elon Musk.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
A lot of people hate Elon Musk, a lot of
investors hate Elon Musk's Elon Musk, a lot of former
employees of the federal government hate Elon Musk. And now
the Department of Motor Vehicles State of California, well, it's
always hated Elon Musk, but Musk Tesla has been sued
(01:03):
by the TMV among other lawsuits, which I'll talk about
in a minute.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
And here's why.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Musk has been known over years for making these extravagant
promises about the capabilities of the cars and for falling
way short. So lawsuit by the DMV is accusing Tesla
of leading buyers to believe, and we've seen this before,
that Teslas can operate autonomously self driving, which by the way,
(01:32):
they can't do, which amounts to false advertising. And so
with the DMV, what are the damages here, Well, the
DMV simply wants to bar Tesla from selling cars in
the state for thirty days. That is the damages that
they are seeking. And there's a five day hearing which
began on Monday in Oakland before an administrative law judge,
(01:54):
a DMV administrative lodjudge, and Tesla there is defending its claims.
Now thirty days, I mean, come on, how punishing is that?
Speaker 3 (02:07):
What's a big deal.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
The state counts for thirty percent of US domestic sales,
the US accounts for roughly half of worldwide sales, and
through June of this year, Tesla sales have fallen more
than eighteen percent in California compared to the same period
last year, and a lot of it is because Musk's
engagement with right wing politics and his online embrace of racist,
(02:33):
anti Semitic views.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Let those fly on his website.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Doge. What's happened at Doge? I don't know if you've
seen those bumper stickers on Tesla. I bought this before
Musk went crazy, and the number of Teslas that are
now on sale used Tesla's you can buy one fairly cheap.
And Tesla's EV market share fell in the state well
still really high. Went from fifty three percent in the
(03:00):
first half of twenty twenty four and it's forty five percent.
So it still sells half the cars here in the
country or in California. And it's had to fight accusation
of false claims.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Before, and lots of them.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Why because you have these overly optimistic, overconfident forecast by
Musk of both sales and technological capabilities.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
That's all over the website.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
For example, Musk said in twenty sixteen, within two years,
you'll be able to summon your car from across the country.
It'll meet you wherever your phone is, and it will
automatically charge itself along the entire journey.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Guess what that doesn't happen.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
In twenty twenty, he told an engineering conference that he
would quote he was confidence. We will have confident, we
will have the basic functionality for level five autonomy.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Complete this year.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
What is Level five, find by the Society of Automotive Engineers,
the highest self driving category that a vehicle can operate
without a human driver ever taking control in all conditions.
No level five cars out there yet, and some engineers
(04:17):
are saying we are far far from it. When you
look at the autonomous cars today, they don't reach well.
Some reach level to very few reach level three instead
of five. So in twenty sixteen, on Tesla's website, there
was a car stopping at a red light, obeying traffic signals,
(04:41):
and there was the caption the person in the driver's
seat is only there for legal reasons. He is not
doing anything. The car is driving itself. Well, in a lawsuit,
a Tesla engineer testified, well, yeah, we had mapped a
route for the car and it didn't have the capabilities
(05:02):
that were shown in the video. Twenty twenty three, a
Tesla shareholder filed a lawsuit saying here are more than
twenty false or misleading statements Musk or Tesla made about
the self driving technology, its safety, and its capabilities. And
(05:24):
this was a shareholder lawsuit saying that my investment in
Tesla has either decreased in value or has not increased
based on these statements that were made by Musk which
are not true. In twenty twenty three, there was a
podcast and Musk claim that by the end of the year,
(05:46):
a Tesla car will be able to find you in
a parking lot, pick you up, take you all the
way to your destination without an intervention. I am certain
of that, and that's not a question mark. Well, so
far California DMV, among others, is claiming, no, that's not possible,
(06:09):
certainly not in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
So what is Tesla's defense to all of this?
Speaker 2 (06:16):
You would think there is no defense, right, he says,
and none of it is true, or a lot of
it is not true. Well, guess what, There really is
a defense here. And now we go a little bit
into handle on the law, or I explain a legal defense,
which is kind of interesting. And there have been tons
of lawsuits on that one going on with a lawsuit
(06:39):
against Tesla, and the DMV has filed a lawsuit, and
plaintiffs have filed lawsuits, and various organizations have file lawsuits
against Tesla, mainly arguing that all of the claims about
autonomous driving are bunk, they just aren't true, making wild claims.
(07:02):
So what is his defense, Because there is a defense here, and.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
That is.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
That this is puffery. And let me explain what puffery is.
Puffery is allowed in the law. And in this case
we're talking about corporations, companies that are making claims, and
there is a difference between misleading straight out misleading, making
statements to confuse people or to buy products, and using
(07:34):
false information, making up information and things like we're the
greatest in the world, we're the number one company. Well,
who determines that, And that's called puffery. We're the best
out there. That is puffery that is allowed under the
(07:55):
law because you're going to exaggerate that and you're not.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Making a specific claim. Now, the problem.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Is is that he makes specific claims. For example, in
twenty sixteen, he said, within two years of Tesla, you'll
be able to summon your car from across the country.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
It'll meet you wherever your phone is.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
It will just automatically charge itself along the entire journey. Well,
that's a little tough. Those are statements and that's not puffrey.
I doubt that the court is going to deem that puffrey.
It's just too specific. The claim is we're the best
(08:37):
car in the world. We are by far the most
driveable car.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Whatever.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Any kind of sort of generic and puffery is based
on exactly that. Word, we're just puffing up our position.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
But there are way.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Too many of these statements. So Wells Fargo had the
same problem. In twenty eighteen. They had a shareholder lawsuit
saying that the bank's claim it was working to court
restore trust among its customers after a whole string of scandals,
that that claim restore trust was false. The bank said
(09:16):
it was puffery so generic, and I agree with this.
By the way, they couldn't cause a reasonable investor to
rely upon them. Wells Fargo settled the lawsuit for three
hundred million dollars. They weren't going to go to trial
on that. And by the way, that I thought was
really puffery. So California Authorities a DMV filed the case
(09:38):
against Tessela in July twenty twenty two. Four components, number
one labeling the autonomous driving functions as autopilot and full
self driving capability nope, and that customers who buy cars
relying on that are being lied to. Also two bits
of language on the website. One says the system is
(10:03):
designed to be able to conduct short and long distance
trips with no action required by the person in the
driver's seat, and the other one said all you'll need
to do is to get in and tell your car
where to go, and your testa will figure out the
optimal route navigating urban streets, complex interaction intersections, and freeways.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
No.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
No, although I'll tell you what the company did say
in a brief and a trial brief that it's autopilot
and full self driving. Descriptions have always been qualified by
warnings to users that the features require active drivers supervision
and in fact do not make the vehicle autonomous. Which
(10:49):
is kind of fun because in one sentence the vehicles
are autonomous, and then down at the bottom, well, they're
really not autonomous. The other thing Tesla is saying that
the frase this is that are being used to describe
Tesla are really only on an aspirational web page designed
to recruit engineers, not being aimed at buyers. All we
(11:13):
want to do is recruit engineers. And even though the
claims are not actual factual claims, not meant for the public,
not meant for people who buy Tesla's well, I got
news for Tesla, and this is going to be a
tough one. There is a lawsuit that was brought by
four families who were killed. Members were either grievously injured
(11:39):
or killed by Tesla's who blew through intersections. And again
Tesla said, puffery, we are exaggerating. This is not factual. Well,
a judge did rule quote a reasonable person. A reasonable
jury could could find that Tesla acted and reckless dis
(12:00):
regard of human life for the sake of developing their
product and maximizing profit. Now that's not to say that
the jury is.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Going to agree with that.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
What the judge did after emotion to toss out the
case said uh uh, because a jury could find reasonably
that Tesla is at fault. The case goes forward. And
another interesting part of that case is the judge cleared
the plaintiffs, the family members, to go after punitive damages
(12:33):
in the case. That's no small deal. So I think
Tesla's going to get nailed on all of this. I
think it's defense of puffery does not fly, Absolutely does
not fly. You notice that when I talk about my
advice that I give to you, I always disclaim, always disclaim,
(12:56):
at every minute of that case or minute of this segment,
going in, going out marginal legal advice. I do not
want to be accused of actually telling you that I
know what I'm talking about even Puffrey.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
All right. Now, Yesterday, this is fun.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Yesterday we did a segment in which AI basically did
the entire segment for us, using my voice, using Amy's voice,
using Will's voice to do traffic and news, and then
my segment completely completely done by artificial intelligence.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
I think is chat chat cheept.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
So Joe Larsgaard, who is supposed to be with us
today is not.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
He's on vacation.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
So I'm gonna do a segment, okay, except I'm not
gonna do a segment. We're gonna bring artificial insemination back.
So here's what we're gonna do.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
I keep on saying in semination. I keep on saying
insemination because that is where my mind is. And I
do apologize for that because I spend thirty five years
in third party reproductive law, and that's what we did
for thirty five years.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
I've actually done it a lot longer than that.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
That's a personal note that I'll talk about you talk
to you about some other time. All right, So artificial
intelligence we're going to use to do the Joel Larsguard segment,
of which I'm going to do so kick back. I'm
going to I'm going to go get a sandwich. I'm
going to relax, get a drink, and just you know,
(14:40):
take the segment and enjoy. Here is artificial not in semination,
artificial intelligence doing a segment that Joel lars Guard would
probably do. Welcome back to the bill Handle show. Let'
let's discuss what's been making headlines. Tariffs. These are import
(15:04):
taxes and duties impacting both your wallet and the global economy.
The President supports these tariffs, stating they level the playing field.
Recent news includes a tariff deal with Japan. Japan will
now pay reciprocal tariffs to the US at a fifteen
percent rate according to KFI AM six forty. This rate
(15:26):
is lower than some threatened rates, but higher than the
near two percent rate on Japanese imports before Trump's second
term according to World Bank data. So is it a
win that depends? In exchange? For these tariffs, Japan agreed
to open its economy to US products such as trucks, rice,
and agricultural goods. Plus they'll supposedly invest five hundred and
fifty billion dollars in the US economy. The president did
(15:49):
not specify where the money will go. However, the President's
August first deadline for other countries to avoid tariff rates
is approaching. Analysts warned that higher prices could affect everyday purchases,
including coffee, shoes, and appliances, if these tariffs are implemented.
The Journal of Commerce reports that carriers are pulling trans
Pacific capacity due to the August tariff deadline. This means
(16:11):
shippers are moving cargo as quickly as possible and ships
may not be arriving. This creates uncertainty, delays and potential
problems for businesses. The Asian Development Bank, according to the
Journal of Commerce, also warned that rising tariffs and trade
friction are reducing intra Asia growth prospects. This is a
global domino effect. Companies like st Microelectronics list changes in
(16:34):
global trade policies, including the adoption and expansion of tariffs
and trade barriers, as a potential adverse impact on their
product demand.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
This impacts real businesses.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
The argument for tariffs is to defend domestic producers, avoid
job losses, and ensure national economic security.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Yeah, bring that down, And if you've been listening.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Wake up, okay, just wake up, because even so that
was artificial intelligence. Didn't sound very intelligent to me, Am,
I that dumb. I think it sounded intelligence, but it
didn't sound like you.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
No, it didn't you.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
No, of course it was, but it it didn't quite
have the inflection it did it's going to learn.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
We're going to play with this again.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
That happened to be incredibly boring, and it happened to
be very convoluted. It happened to be just run of
the mill. Gee, is that really what this show is about?
I think I've just described our morning show. Wow, okay, anyway,
I just wanted to do that.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Did it work?
Speaker 2 (17:44):
I don't know, but you're right, Amy, that isn't That
one isn't me. You can tell that it was a
little bit off. I would you give this a B
or a C plus? That one definitely is a C plus. Yea.
It just sounded kind of monotone and it did. Yeah,
it didn't not animated like you are. No, it didn't
(18:06):
grab my inflections. It didn't grab my excitement about artificial
insemination as opposed artificial intelligence. It just wasn't the same
this time around. Yesterday was much much better. All right,
So here's what we're gonna do, and we're gonna try
it again probably in the next week or two, and
see if we can get it even.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
More miserable and more boring.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
And by the way, I'm going to submit this one
to this particular segment to the National Association of Anesthesiologists,
because they have an annual award every year for the
most boring segment on radio where they actually use those
segments during surgery. Okay, Well, Kelly is on the air
(18:53):
here at KFI Monday through Friday, seven pm set to
ten pm every single night.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Morning, Mo, good morning. And the AI almost fooled me Bill.
I said something sounds off with Bill today, and then
I realized it was AI.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Did you? I mean it actually just you thought it
was me originally.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Well, when I first tuned in and I'm thinking, like,
why is Bill just reading this text in this copy
in such a boring way? And then I realized, oh,
it must be some sort of chat GPT or something
like that.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
That's exactly what it was.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Absolutely, and yesterday we did the same thing because I'm
playing with this and we're hoping that this program, this
algorithm learns and it is not. Yesterday it was far
better than today, So we're gonna have a good time
with this. I've just become enamored with this stuff, all right,
A statement here that I found kind of interesting and
(19:46):
I wanted to go to you because this is your wheelhouse.
Box office grosses are not going to return to pre
COVID levels even by twenty twenty nine, according to a
new report.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
That does not bode well for movie making.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
It's iterating the cost is so astronomical to make a
film is sort of the death knevel of movies in
the movie theater kind of thing, or so what.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
I think, Bill, You and I were closer to being
on the same page as this than anything, because I
don't even believe the box office is going to rebound
by twenty twenty nine, if only because the trajectory of
the business is such that fewer movies are being made
now to be specifically in theaters.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
When you talk about box office.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
More and more movies are made for streaming, and there
are fewer and fewer movie theaters movie houses around the country.
The mom and pops are not around anymore. Even the
big chains are having to contract to a certain degree.
And also, if the gross box office numbers should grow
to twenty nineteen levels by twenty twenty nine. That's an
inflationary mark, not a general a genuine look at what.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
The box office is. So I disagree with this altogether.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
One of the things, and you and I both talked
about this, I was such a movie not I mean
I still am. You know, I love watching movies and
TV shows, mainly documentaries, but I used to go to
two movies a week. And if there are enough people
like me, boy, that is not healthy for the movie
theaters or even the industry itself.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Well, the industry has been heavily dependent on summer movies
and summer blockbusters generally since the pandemic have underperformed, and
that's part of the reason as well why the gross
box office numbers have contracted, and it doesn't seem like
studios are willing to spend the same type of money
for all of these blockbusters. Marvel has pulled back, Warner
(21:41):
Brothers has pulled back. Like Marvel, only had two major
releases in the year of twenty twenty five, and they're
trying to limit the number of releases they have going forward.
So that ought to tell you that the number of
movies is not going to be the same, and also
the amount of expenditure overall for movies is not going
to be the same.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Yeah, no surprise.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
All right, MO, we'll talk again next week. Thanks as
always for your insight talk too, all right, Yeah, we do.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
All right, that's it.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
We're done, guys, and we will try the artificial intelligence
one more time, or two more times, or three more times.
I'm really getting enamored with this stuff now. I'm still
taking phone calls Tuesdays and Thursday. I do exactly that
where I'm gonna give you marginal legal advice off the air,
so you can call me at eight seven seven five
(22:30):
two zero eleven fifty eight seven seven five two zero
eleven fifty. And the same rules always apply in terms
of calling in. If you are unintelligible, you're at the
top of the list. If you are particularly stupid and unintelligible,
you are even further up the list. So it's great
(22:51):
fun the number eight seven seven five two zero eleven fifty.
No breaks, no commercials, no weather, no traffic, no patience.
Put all that together and we go through them pretty quickly.
Eight seven seven off the air. I want to keep
on telling you about that. Eight seven seven five two
zero eleven fifty guess what we do this all over
(23:13):
again tomorrow morning. Amy and Will are here for wake
up call. I join at six o'clock. Neil is back
next week, and then, of course Cono and Ann are
here attempting to make the show run well on time
and smooth, and needless to say, they don't succeed very often.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
This Gary and Shannon up next. KFI A, Oh, don't forget.
Did I give the phone numbers already? I did?
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Eight seven, seven, five, two, zero, eleven fifty. This is
KFI AM six forty. You've been listening to the Bill
Handle Show. Catch My Show Monday through Friday, six am
to nine am, and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio
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