Tale of Musk Rewarding Black Good Samaritan for Fixing His Mother’s Flat Tire Is Fiction
One commenter said of the story, “I am 67 and a veteran. This even brought a tear to my my eyes. Absolute kindness from both sides.”
Image courtesy of Storytime With Falcao/YouTube
A rumor claims that billionaire and tech entrepreneur Elon Musk rewarded a “Black boy” named Michael after he helped his mother, Maye Musk, patch a flat tire on her Tesla Cybertruck. This claim circulated online in late November and early December 2024.
One reader emailed Snopes asking about the story and included a link to a YouTube video (archived). The Storytime With Falcao YouTube channel published the clip on Nov. 25. The video’s title read, “Black Boy Helps Elon Musk’s Mom with Flat Tire, Next Day He Gets The SHOCK of His Life!”
The more than 27-minute video tells the story of a 20-year-old Black man (not a “Black boy”) named Michael. In the story, Michael stops on his bicycle ride to assist an elderly woman in patching a flat tire on her Tesla Cybertruck. He tells the woman he studies engineering. Unbeknownst to Michael, the woman was Elon Musk’s mother, Maye Musk. After she tells Elon Musk about the act of kindness, he visits Michael’s home to gift him a Tesla Cybertruck and offer him a scholarship to any engineering school of his choice.
Commenters under the video — whether existing as authentic users or not — expressed trust in the story and believed it had truly occurred. For example, one user said, “What an extraordinary story of kindness and gratitude impacting society. Elon Musk is not only a billionaire and he has heart of gold to help people move up in life. He is truly an inspiring person for the entire world.” Another person remarked, “This absolutely made me cry. I always say kindness costs nothing and can change the world.” Other users also said they cried, including one commenter who said, “This story brought tears to my eyes. His kindness was rewarded.”
However, the truth was that this video told a fictional story. As such, we rated the claim that Musk rewarded a Black man (or “Black boy”) named Michael after he helped his mother patch a flat tire as false.
This story is an example of glurge — a term defined by Dictionary.com as “stories, often sent by email, that are supposed to be true and uplifting, but which are often fabricated and sentimental.”
Why This Rumor Is False
In our research, we found no evidence to support the claims in the video. On the contrary, everything pointed to it being a made-up tale posted to YouTube in hopes of earning advertising revenue.
The story was vague and lacked detail. For instance, the video never mentioned a last name for Michael, nor did its author ever refer to Maye Musk by name, referring to her instead as Elon Musk’s “mom” or “mother.” Moreover, the video failed to state when and where these events purportedly took place, only mentioning “a quiet suburban street.”
Storytime With Falcao features videos telling other evidence-free stories about acts of kindness allegedly performed by a “Black boy,” as well. For example, one video displayed the title, “Black Boy Helps Old Man with Groceries, The Next Day, A Luxury Car arrives at His Door…” Another clip’s title read, “Black Boy Returns Lost Wallet to Old Man, The Next Day, a Black Cadillac Showed up at his House.”
The channel’s owner or owners had also posted other videos about Musk, including, for example, a clip featuring the title, “Old Janitor Finds Elon Musk Lost Watch. What Elon Did Next Left Everyone In Shock!”
Still other videos told made-up stories claiming people mistreated Musk for wearing a MAGA hat to show support for U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. One video said a flight attendant kicked Musk off a passenger airliner — without mentioning the airline company’s name or at which airport the supposed incident occurred. Two other videos said managers for a car dealership and hospital also kicked him out — again, allegedly, for wearing a MAGA hat. The video about the hospital manager had received over 1.4 million views as of this writing.
We also found videos on other YouTube channels trying to earn advertising revenue using stories similar to the one about the Musks as bait. For example, four of those videos claimed a “poor Black boy” helped Elon Musk fix a flat tire, a “veteran” helped Maye Musk with a tire, a “Black boy” assisted an unnamed millionaire repair his tire and a “Black man” aided a “desperate woman” in changing her tire.
The Video Featured Elements of AI
The video claiming Musk rewarded a good Samaritan named Michael for fixing his mother’s flat tire featured one picture and yellow subtitles. The image supposedly showed Michael fixing the Cybertruck’s tire while Maye Musk looked on.
However, a user generated that image — and the clip’s narration — with an artificial-intelligence (AI) tool. One telltale sign the picture was not genuine — other than the woman’s face not appearing similar to Maye Musk’s and Michael’s mouth displaying the kind of visual abnormality often found in AI-generated images — was the fact that it showed door handles on the Cybertruck. Tesla does not manufacture Cybertrucks with traditional door handles.
All of the other YouTube videos mentioned above also featured elements created with AI tools.
For further reading, we previously fact-checked other fictional stories about Musk and supposed acts of kindness. For example, one tale told of Musk riding on a city bus and reuniting a lost girl with her mother. Another one said Musk came to the aid of a Black waitress working at a diner after her boss fired her.
