Tesla’s autopilot accidents: Over 1,000 reports of crashes in huge Tesla leak

[Simon]

Informants from Tesla have leaked about 23,000 documents to the German newspaper Handelsblatt. The documents include secret reports on problems with the prestige project cybertruck, excel lists with salaries and addresses of employees and confidential documents on accidents with the self-driving function. With the self-driving function, over 1,000 accidents have been reported, where one reporter says that “the autopilot almost got me killed”. The files also contain 2,400 complaints about the self-acceleration function and 1,500 about serious problems with the brakes. The authenticity of the information has been verified and confirmed by Fraunshofer, an institute for technology in security information. Tesla has not wanted to answer questions from Handelsblatt, but the company’s lawyer says (German source) that “media reporting of illegally obtained data is only allowed under exceptional circumstances”. Handelsblatt has contacted thousands of customers (German source) who confirmed problems.

Tesla is facing a potential lawsuit that could cost them 38 billion dollars as a result of the data leak. The company has also identified an employee who is suspected of being involved in the leak and says that they are “taking action”. Meanwhile, Tesla has admitted another death involving autopilot in a crash in Texas last month.

Tesla’s autopilot accidents have raised concerns about the safety and reliability of the self-driving technology. Critics say that Tesla is misleading customers by calling its system “autopilot” when it is not fully autonomous and still requires human supervision. Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk has defended the system and claimed that it is safer than human drivers.