A huge trove of data containing thousands of customer complaints about Tesla’s Autopilot system has been shared with a German newspaper.
Handelsblatt says Tesla customers across the United States, Europe and Asia reported more than 2,400 self-acceleration and 1500 brake failures between 2015 and early 2022.
The newspaper said anonymous whistleblowers shared the complaints as part of a 100GB data dump containing more than 23,000 Tesla internal files.
“The number of collisions is more than 1000,” the newspaper reported, translated from German into English.
“A table of incidents involving driver assistance systems where customers have expressed safety concerns has more than 3000 entries.”
Handelsblatt said it had reached out to Tesla for comment on alleged problems with Autopilot, at which point the automaker had “requested data deletion and talk of data theft.”
Reply, Handelsblatt Editor-in-Chief Sebastian Mathes said:
“Believe me, I love reporting on successful innovations and I love bold business visions. But I have no doubt: this story is in the public domain.”
“Other automakers are also grappling with self-driving cars. But few car owners make such big promises in this area as Elon Musk.”
The German report also reveals how Tesla communicates with customers experiencing problems with Autopilot, alleging that the brand only shares details of any incidents “verbally” and warning employees not to share. Share reports of any issues in email, text messages, or voicemail.
Autopilot and Full Self-Driving Level 2 autopilot features have been making headlines lately.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a US regulator, has two active investigations underway into the system, one of which is at the technical analysis stage. and is looking into collisions with stationary emergency vehicles, while the other investigation is looking at virtual brake reports.
The agency confirmed it was investigating the 17th fatal crash involving Autopilot, after a Model S collided with a parked fire truck in Contra Costa County, California in February.
Shareholders also recently filed a lawsuit against Tesla in federal court in San Francisco, alleging that they were defrauded by the company with false and misleading claims about the technology “creating a risk of accidents and serious injury”.
Tesla is also said to be the subject of an investigation by the US Department of Justice, which is said to be examining whether Tesla misled consumers, investors and regulators by making statements There is no basis for the capabilities of driver assistance technology.
In a pardon for Tesla, the California jury see benefits for Tesla earlier this month in a case involving its Autopilot system.
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