A somewhat amusing moment was caught on camera at Tesla’s booth during the Geneva Motor show last week. A reporter from the German magazine Wirtschafts Woche was interviewing Tesla’s head in Germany and Switzerland Jochen Rudat, a rising-star in Tesla’s organisation after the company’s success in Switzerland.
While interviewing Rudat in the Model X, which Tesla brought to the show for its European debut, BMW CEO Harald Kruger jumped in the backseat next to Rudat. It took a few seconds for the reporter to realize what was happening, but he quickly recognized him and asked him what he thinks of the vehicle.
As soon as he realized that the journalist recognized him, he started frantically pushing the button to open the door. Harald didn’t formulate much of an opinion about the car, but he said that the Model X was really only a “prototype” and not a production car, even though Tesla has been delivering the vehicle to customers since late last year.
The CEO then quickly rushed out of the car and hit his head on the Falcon-Wing door on his way out:
Hat tip to Chris for sending us the video!
Karma or Model X’s AI is more advanced than we think?
Update: Some people are saying that it is a design flaw and that it should have opened completely, but it looks like it stopped there because someone outside the vehicle grabbed the door as it was opening.
Also brilliant comment from the Reddit thread:
“He literally hit himself on the head with denial…” – CadarF
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lol
indeed, someone stopshit the door from the outside. I guess to demonstrate the safety. They where visibly debating/talking about “the event”. The bmw ceo was mesmerised by the camera 😉
Thanks for the mention, it means a lot! Keep up the good work.
The Model X is a prototype, and this comes from the CEO of BMW. What a fool, is he blind or just plain dumb?
Excellent. And no, of course it is not a “prototype”. When will these competitors stop pretending that the Model X is unbuildable? I have one and yes it most certainly exists and is amazing. BMW should spend the money on building a better EV instead of propaganda.
This guy seriously needs to stop going to auto shows https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kg6xvir0wuc
The video is unavailable 🙁
I like him, lol, you can see he likes it, the moment he points at the button etc. but as soon as the reporter asks he has to come up with some shit. You know, he has to play his role, even though he might be CEO he is not as free as Elon to give a shit. He needs to build and sell millions of cars and cannot simply jump on the EV like that. That would kill a lot of Revenue and I can understand that. But I am sure BMW is on a good way, even though maybe a bit slow but still faster than other. the i3 is not that bad even though I find it ugly but that’s my personal taste.
He only said that this specific car that Tesla brought to Geneva is a prototype. Nothing more, nothing less.
And can you tell me how you found that out. Were you at the show. Does it say something somewhere?
He said it based on the seat back covers which are the same in every car, I wouldn’t know if it was really a prototype, but that’s not that he was implying.
This video demonstrates the Germany disease quite well. the nation of the great pretenders.
“We make the best cars in the world”. this showed itself not to be true, after the whole Diesegate thing.
“We are the best football players”. not really. look up on the whole FIFA bribery allegations.
And it could go on and on. As for BMW, nowadays it makes fat, overpriced, overhyped lifestyle accessories. And that is even before they started making their cars in Mexico and shipping it worldwide ( look up the WSJ article “Why Auto Makers Are Building New Factories in Mexico, not the U.S.”).
I really hope that Tesla could show them how it is done, and perhaps even open up a Factory in München. they could use some competition.
In the case you dont understand German too good, i can assure you he did not mean the words “Das ist ein Prototyp” in a charming way meaning that car is so great and will never be build, but he meant in very lousy way that this car is so poorly built and a “Prototype”, a not ready car. I hope he will regret These words soon!
The door did actually open correctly, there was a woman in a white suit standing in the doors way and that’s why the door didn’t open. Pretty obvious.
Reminds me of a comment a BMW Exec made about the ACURA NSX years ago… “It’s just a CIVIC…”
If only the BMW CEO didn’t refer to the production Model X
as a prototype, the falcon wing door would have opened its
Right Wing completely to allow him to exit safely without
Bumping his head!
I think BWM CEO even dosen’t know that BMW also has an X series.