A Tesla whistleblower has leaked 100GB of information to the German outlet Handelsblatt containing hundreds of buyer complaints that increase severe issues in regards to the security of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) options.
The complaints, which had been reported throughout the US, Europe, and Asia, span from 2015 to March 2022. Throughout this era, Handelsblatt says Tesla prospects reported over 2,400 self-acceleration points and 1,500 braking issues, together with 139 reviews of “unintentional emergency braking” and 383 reviews of “phantom stops” from false collision warnings.
Among the incidents talked about by Handelsblatt embrace descriptions of how vehicles “instantly brake or speed up abruptly.” Whereas some drivers safely gained management of their automobile, Handelsblatt says others “ended up in a ditch, hit partitions or crashed into oncoming automobiles.”
The paperwork obtained by the outlet additionally define Tesla’s insurance policies when responding to the problems prospects expertise and recommend that Tesla likes to maintain its automobiles’ knowledge below wraps. Listed here are a number of the insurance policies described by Handelsblatt (translated with Google Translate):
For every incident there are bullet factors for the “technical evaluate”. The workers who enter this evaluate into the system commonly make it clear that the report is “for inside use solely”. Every entry additionally accommodates the observe in daring print that data, if in any respect, might solely be handed on “VERBALLY to the client”.
“Don’t copy and paste the report beneath into an e-mail, textual content message, or go away it in a voicemail to the client,” it stated. Automobile knowledge also needs to not be launched with out permission. If, regardless of the recommendation, “an involvement of a lawyer can’t be prevented”, this have to be recorded.
In accordance with a observe from Handelsblatt editor-in-chief Sebastian Matthes, the outlet’s editorial crew despatched Tesla a number of questions in regards to the knowledge it acquired. As a substitute of answering them, Matthes says Tesla “demanded that the info be deleted and spoke of information theft.” We nonetheless don’t know who offered Handelsblatt with the leaked data, however Matthes notes that the outlet acquired it from “a number of informants.”
That is removed from the primary time issues about Tesla’s FSD have been raised. Tesla’s FSD functionality allows all of the options that include Tesla’s Autopilot and Enhanced Autopilot options, together with automated lane adjustments, autosteering, auto parking, and extra. Regardless of these issues, Tesla made its FSD beta accessible to everybody in November of final yr.
The Nationwide Freeway Visitors Security Administration began wanting into Tesla’s FSD software program in January after Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the corporate would give customers the choice to show off “steering wheel nag.” Round one month later, the company deemed the potential a crash danger, main Tesla to recall 362,758 vehicles outfitted with FSD and pause FSD installations.
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