Tesla Accused Of Copying Design For Its Cybertruck-Inspired Cat Bed
Image via Tesla China
Claws are being activated toward Tesla, which is being called out for potentially stealing someone’s design to build merch for cats. Yes, cats. It’s not a typo.
The automaker’s Chinese outpost recently made headlines for launching what might be the company’s oddest product yet: a cat bed seemingly inspired by the angular form of the Cybertruck.
But things have turned from zero to 100 real quick. The electric car company is now being accused of appropriating the geometric cardboard product of Hulumao, a small Taiwanese firm that designs and sells cat furniture. The supposed copy-cat was first pointed out by local YouTuber Jeff Young, who said the pieces were about “95% identical” to one another.
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Hulumao, launched in 2016 by industrial designer Shihchang Hsiao to celebrate his wife’s love of cats, released its version in 2017, although this one was marketed as a “lounge chair” for felines.
Regardless, the similarities between the pieces of furniture are pretty apparent. Both have sharp-cornered exteriors and are crafted from multi-layered, eco-friendly corrugated cardboard, and feature an open space in the middle that offers room for a scratcher.
Hulumao’s lounge chair has also won its creators awards, including a gold prize at the A’ Design Award & Competition in 2017.
Images via Shih-Chang Hsiao and Yu-luen Huang / A’ Design Award and Competition (left) and Tesla China (right)
Expressing its displeasure with Tesla’s purported knockoff, Hulumao has taken to its Instagram account to write CEO Elon Musk a rather backhanded message, first thanking the company “for promoting our product with [the] Tesla logo on it and selling it in China,” before noting, “we are sure we have never manufactured this model for Tesla… nor licensed the design to you.”
Since Hulumao hasn’t patented its design, Hsiao acknowledges that the carmaker has a leg up in this unfair race, telling news outlets that there’s “not really much we can do.”
[via Carscoops and Taipei Times, images via various sources]
