A Tesla driver claimed a fellow motorist targeted her on an Arizona road this month because she was driving an Elon Musk-made car – though police didn’t indicate Sunday that the type of vehicle was a factor in the skirmish.
The woman, 61, was allegedly assaulted by a 33-year-old man along Route 66 in Flagstaff on March 19 after the man used his green Chevrolet Cavalier to box her Tesla in, according to footage obtained by Arizona Family.
The male driver then got out of his car and approached the driver’s side of the Tesla, leading to an altercation, Flagstaff police said.
The caught-on-camera attack happened in Arizona this month.
“I started to say, ‘You cut me off, what’s your problem?’, but I didn’t know how much he heard me,” the woman, who did not want to be identified, told the station Friday. “He got out and started to punch me with a closed fist.”
A passenger in the suspect’s car eventually stepped out of the green Chevy to pull the man away, video shows.
While police confirmed a confrontation ensued after the man approached the driver’s side of the Tesla, they said there are “conflicting accounts from those involved as to what transpired.”
Both drivers suffered minor injuries, authorities said.
The incident raised eyebrows because Tesla drivers and dealerships have been targeted in recent weeks in an apparent response to Musk, the electric car’s CEO, playing a pivotal role in President Trump’s White House.
“I’m just appalled,” the Tesla driver said to the station.
“I didn’t buy my car for a political statement. I bought my car because it’s really fun to drive. My politics have nothing to do with that. I’m ashamed of our society and what they are doing.”
But police said the incident was fueled by “driving behavior, honking, and disorderly hand gestures.” Witnesses also told police both vehicles were driving erratically.
“At the time of the investigation, no additional details regarding the motives behind the incident were provided,” Flagstaff police said.
The male driver, identified as Robert Artherton, 33, was charged with disorderly conduct, assault and aggressive driving, police said.
Rep. Abe Hamadeh (Arizona-R) condemned the ugly incident Sunday before more information from police was released.
The Tesla was boxed in during the incident.
“Unable to come to terms with their historic loss in November, & spurred on by the incendiary anti-Elon rhetoric of the leaders of their party, the radical left has resorted to violence,” he said in a statement.
“This needs to stop before more people are hurt.”
Another Tesla owner told the Arizona Family she found a nasty note on her car in a grocery parking lot recently.
“When she’s a Nazi and loser! XOXO,” the note read.
“It’s wrong, and it’s deplorable,” that woman told the station. “I think they are just hating people and not really hurting a company or Tesla.”
