More than 1,000 crash reports and 3,000 self-driving incidents at Tesla between 2015 and 2022 have been leaked. Tesla acknowledges the theft of the data and gives veracity to the information.
A 100 GB leak from “various informants” inside Tesla, they reveal thousands of complaints about Autopilot functions of the company in recent years. The collection reportedly contains 23,000 internal files, spanning complaints from 2015 to March 2022.
The German newspaper Handelsblatt has received a leak revealing more than 1,000 crash reports and a table with 3,000 incidents in which drivers raised safety concerns about Tesla’s driver assistance system, owned by Elon Musk.
Between 2015 and 2022, Tesla would have received reports of auto-acceleration problems and cases related to the braking function. The latter would include 139 complaints about involuntary emergency stops and 383 about sudden stops due to false collision alarms.
Although most reported incidents occurred in the United States, some complaints came from owners in Europe and Asia. Handelsblatt claims to have contacted dozens of customers to corroborate their reports, with some even sharing videos with the publication.
Aside from details about the security claims, the files would also include alleged instructions to employees on how to communicate with customers. They were told not to copy and paste incident reports into emails or text messages, and not to leave information on voicemail.
The newspaper studied the data and Tesla confirms the theft of these
Handelsblatt’s editor-in-chief, Sebastian Matthes, has set out in a letter the reasons for the publication of the information from the archives. A team of 12 people reviewed and evaluated the data for six months.
Matthes pointed out that data shows that Tesla, as a pioneer in the electric car market, faces technological problems in its more serious models than previously known, especially its Autopilot.
files reveal thousands of reports of complications with driver assistance systems from Tesla, such as vehicles that suddenly brake at high speed or accelerate unexpectedly.
For his part, Joseph Alm, CEO of Tesla Litigation, has stated that the data had been stolen and that the media cannot publish illegally obtained informationexcept in exceptional circumstances.
Alm added that Tesla intends to sue the former employee responsible for “stealing Tesla confidential information and employee personal data” by violating their confidentiality agreement.