Faraday Future sued over missed payments on $2 million VR video (update)
Add another lawsuit to the list for the automaker.
Faraday Future may have had a new car to show off at CES earlier this month, but everyone's left Las Vegas and old problems are cropping up. Now, the company is being sued by a video effects company for failure to pay for a virtual fly-through of one of its concept vehicles. Last September The Mill gave Faraday an estimate for how much it'd cost to produce a "graphic presentation with virtual reality, augmented reality and holographic components" for January's trade show, according to court documents obtained by Jalopnik.
Faraday allegedly agreed to pay the $1,822,750 in three installments, but The Mill claims that it has only been paid once despite "repeated requests." And it wasn't the right amount, either. Instead of the agreed-upon $455,687.50, Faraday paid $20,000 for the work. It leaves a balance of $1,802,750 plus interest and other costs for the video.
At this point, it's par for the course for the company. In December we reported on the heap of lawsuits stacking up from unpaid vendors and that the company could be out of business by February 2017 if it couldn't secure funding at CES.
Since then, the automaker has racked up at least 64,124 reservation slots for its FF 91 SUV, but how many people ponied up for the $5,000 priority reservation isn't clear. Had that been the only way to pre-order (a free reservation was also offered) the company would've had over $320 million laying around -- more than enough to pay for the fancy holograms and VR video. The FF 91 is slated to begin production in 2018.
We've reached out to Faraday for more information and will update this post should it arrive.
Update: Faraday has issued the following statement:
"The Mill Group Inc. was brought in to Faraday Future to create Virtual Reality (VR) content for the FF 91 unveiling at CES. The Mill alleges that it is entitled to full payment for work that it performed. Faraday Future denies this contention, and looks forward to the opportunity to present the facts supporting its position through the legal process.
Faraday Future prioritizes its strategic relationships with suppliers as a critical part of bringing our vision of future mobility to life. We are committed to fulfilling our financial obligations in a timely manner with all vendors, and by the same measure, will work to protect our business interests and company growth."
