Elon Musk levels up his Disney feud by bringing Tesla into the fray.
Over the weekend, numerous Tesla owners began to report that Disney’s streaming app, Disney+, was suspiciously missing from their vehicles.
“So Disney+ has now been removed from Tesla vehicles,” posted X user @TheTeslaHoe after seeing the app was removed from her vehicle. “I’m assuming this is in retaliation to Disney pulling advertising from X (which they have every right to do).”
“This comes off like a temper tantrum,” @TheTeslaHoe continued. “And I feel like Tesla owners are now caught in the crossfire of something that is absolutely not their fault.”
In November, a number of major brands stopped advertising on Musk’s social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. Companies like Apple, Sony, and Disney paused its ad campaigns following Musk’s endorsement of a antisemitic conspiracy theory posted by another user on the platform.
Weeks later, during a live interview at the New York Times‘ Dealbook Summit, Musk was asked about the fleeing advertisers. In response, Musk told them to “go fuck yourself.” He then decided to single out Disney by referencing the company’s CEO Bob Iger.
“Hey, Bob, if you’re in the audience. That’s how I feel, don’t advertise,” Musk said.
Other Tesla owners found that the app had also been removed from their vehicle. While others have reported that the Disney+ app is still there.
“I can confirm that Disney+ has been removed from my Tesla Model S,” posted @WholeMarsBlog, a X user and supporter of Musk. “Strangely, our Hardware 3 Model S on the same firmware still has it.”
According to a report from online electric vehicle news outlet Electrek, a source tells them that Tesla informed Disney that it was removing the Disney+ app last week. Tesla then altered its decision and said it would only remove the app from Tesla vehicles that have never used the Disney+ app before.
Tesla first added the Disney+ app to vehicles’ “Theater mode” in 2021. Other native apps available in Tesla’s Theater include Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok. It appears that only the Disney+ app has been removed.
According to Electrek, Tesla did not provide Disney with a specific reason for the removal of the Disney+ app, but the message sent by the company was “read between the lines.”
