I, Robot Director Accuses Elon Musk Of Ripping Off His Ideas

When Elon Musk held the We, Robot reveal for Tesla on October 10, a lot of people drew some obvious parallels between it and the 2004 Will Smith movie I, Robot. After all, the names are similar, but as Alex Proyas, who directed the film points out, so is the design of the three Tesla products revealed at the event.

A police department has traded in all its patrol cars for Teslas.

It’s no secret Musk is heavily influenced by movies and other pop culture sources. He openly admitted the Lotus Esprit submarine featured in the James Bond flick The Spy Who Loved Me heavily influenced the design of the Cybertruck.

And Elon purchased the actual movie vehicle, funny enough.

He named Ludicrous Mode in Tesla cars after Ludicrous Speed in the 1987 movie Spaceballs. We could go on and on, but you get the picture. So it’s probably not that big of a stretch to say I, Robot served as inspiration for the new Tesla Robotaxi, Robovan, and Optimus robot (named after Autobot leader Optimus Prime, to boot).

Proyas took to X, which is owned by Musk, posting an image of those three products with what he argues are their design equivalent from his film, asking, “Hey Elong, Can (sic) I have my designs back please?”

Not everyone agrees that the Tesla products and the technology used in the film are all that similar. After all, the car Will Smith’s character drives is an Audi prototype that doesn’t have wheels but instead glides on four large balls underneath. It has a butterfly door, but that’s about where the similarities between it and the Robotaxi end.

Same thing with the Robovan and the one transport truck thing from the movie: a similar shape, but that’s about it. And those robots from the film had faces, not soulless black voids like the Optimus features.

Some X users smartly pointed out the Robovan and the thing from the movie both were inspired by Art Deco trains from back in the 1930s. While others seemed to agree with Proyas, they appeared to be in the minority.

Was this a cry for attention referencing an old movie that cheapened a great book written by Isaac Asimov? That probably depends on how you feel about Musk, to be honest.

Images via Tesla