Tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee, also known as MKBHD, has posted a video in which he appears he may be driving at speeds that seem considerably higher than the speed limit, possibly in a school zone. The video has gathered backlash online for the creator showing considerable disregard for road safety. I’m a big fan of MKBHD and he has built a reputation for high-quality, informative content, which makes this incident particularly surprising.
Since initially writing this article, I waited to hear back from the MKBHD team. He has since confirmed the following on social:
What Did MKBHD Do?
MKBHD recently came under fire for his new high-definition wallpaper app called Panels which has a premium tier at €10.99 per month or €49.99 per year. He faced criticism for the price of the platform but to be honest, he was sharing profits with artists and it’s his product. So I’ve no issue with that if people want to pay it, even if he does often call out overpriced products himself.
However, in a recent video, MKBHD posted, criticism is a lot less subjective. In a DJI sponsored video, Brownlee discusses how his video gear is changing from typically high-end and high-quality production gear and going towards action cameras in 2025. DJI sponsoring the video, I have absolutely no issue with. While some don’t like it, he is fully transparent with all of that.
However, in the video, MKBHD includes a short clip of him driving in a Lamborghini, appearing to be accelerating aggressively from 24mph to 96mph in about 5 seconds. It is worth noting here that given MKBHD is American, I’m assuming the car is configured in MPH and not KMPH. I’m basing this logic on how it appears the car is configured along with it showing temperature in Fahrenheit, not Celsius. This supports that the overall car is set to US Imperial and not EU Metric.
Even if the car were configured in Metric, it would still raise questions about safety and legality. It’s the kind of shot that even the BBC would have edited out of Top Gear all those years ago because it’s clearly driving a car as a toy on a public road.
What’s even more incredible is it appears the primary speedometer was blurred in editing, but this particular model, which appears to be the new Lamborghini Temerario, has a secondary speedometer on the passenger side that was not obscured.
Making things worse for the creator is that MKBHD appears to pass a “slow school” sign and a 35mph speed limit sign.
Reaction to the MKBHD DJI Video
The reaction to MKBHD’s video has been extremely critical. Commenters across YouTube and other online communities have described this as an unusual action for an experienced creator. For me, driving on any public road in a car and treating it like a toy is highly irresponsible. Cars, as fun as they can be, are not toys and can cause real harm.
That is one clear take away from this video. Please drive safely whenever you drive.
However, there’s a second point here which I can’t get out of my mind. This is just such a weird mistake for MKBHD to make. To publish a video, appearing to drive in an unsafe manner before making an apparent attempt to obscure the speedometer reading, which might indicate that there was an awareness of potential concerns regarding road safety, is odd for a creator with the stature of MKBHD.
It leaves a question lingering about MKBHD’s editorial standards. While I have absolutely no issue with transparent sponsored ads, many of the YouTube comments have called out this video as being a 10-minute long ad. Which is somewhat unfair, but given recent criticism of Panels and then to see the content where he appears to be driving in a manner that could be interpreted as unsafe or in violation of the laws, leaves you wondering, why are the editorial standards of one of the Internet’s best known creators slipping considerably.
It’s important to note that these are my observations based on the available footage, and no formal statements regarding legal violations have been issued. I’ve reached out to the MKBHD team for comment on the video and will update this accordingly.
Update: Since initially writing this, MKBHD has made a statement on social media.
