‘Called Elon Musk a friend’: Indian-origin entrepreneur says he’ll never buy Tesla again

Vivek Wadhwa, Indian-American entrepreneur, author and academic. (Image credit: Wadhwa.com)

Indian-American entrepreneur and author Vivek Wadhwa, an avowed "Tesla fanboy", is now re-thinking his support for Elon Musk' electric cars.

Wadhwa, a Washington Post columnist and academic with stints at Harvard University, Stanford and Carnegie Mellon, has strongly defended Musk and Tesla on past occasions.

He told Insider he considered Elon Musk a friend, having first met him for an interview in 2013.

The two had a chance to talk off-camera too and Musk told Wadhwa of his plans to retire on Mars.

Wadhwa said he was impressed by Musk and continued speaking to him in the following years. He took Musk's side in opinion pieces, and the Tesla boss endorsed his book.

"I used to call him a friend," Wadhwa told Insider. "Maybe he wouldn't call me one, but I did. I will always call him the greatest innovator of our time."

Also read: US SEC probes Elon Musk's role in Tesla self-driving claims

But he's more cautious now, after at least two incidents with Tesla's Full Self-Driving mode (FSD), which has been in focus because of safety concerns.

Wadhwa told Insider he was one of the first buyers of the Tesla Model S. Later, he sold it to get a new car to avail the Full Self-Driving feature.

One day, he said, his Tesla crashed into his garage when he used the Summon mode.

In another instance, the car almost crashed on a road.

"It really shook me up," Wadhwa said.  "If I hadn't slammed on the brakes, that might have been the first filmed Autopilot crash."

Wadhwa clarified that his complaint was only about FSD and he still considered Tesla to be a "beautiful" car.

But will he buy it again? Certainly not.

"I didn't get the Full Self-Driving that I was promised," Wadhwa said, adding that he felt duped. "It's still a beautiful car. But, my next car will not be a Tesla. There's no way."

Not just that, Wadhwa said if there is a class-action lawsuit over FSD mode, he will join it immediately. He also wants a refund of $15,000, the amount he spent on the technology.

Recently, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak had also called out Tesla and Musk for "misleading" buyers.

Wozniak told CNBC he had spend huge amounts of money on self-driving technology since 2016.

“They have robbed my family—myself and my wife—of so much money I couldn’t tell you, with things they said that we really believed would be real,” Wozniak said. “A lot of honesty disappears when you look at Elon Musk and Tesla."

Tesla says its Full Self Driving Capability and Autopilot mode need a fully attentive drivers, with hands on the wheel and ready to take over any moment.

Authorities have argued the term "full self-driving" becomes misleading then.

Tesla's driver assistance features are under investigation by the US Department of Justice . The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is also reviewing them.