A former Tesla employee has shared a leaked document of the company's complaints for the past years, particularly about the Autopilot feature.
The confidential data, which was shared with the German publication Handelsblatt contains 100GB of data on issues raised by consumers who opposed the automaker's Full Self Driving (FSD) capabilities.
New Tesla Leak Contains Thousands of Autopilot-Related Concerns
Tesla believes that a disgruntled whistleblower who previously worked for the company is responsible for leaking a document containing thousands of customer complaints on Autopilot features.
Even though someone is good at hiding secrets, there will be a time when all will be revealed unexpectedly. That's what happened to Tesla, which was silently keeping all of its customers' complaints for the past years in what it thought to be safe data storage.
According to a report by Engadget, the data was related to a German newspaper which later said that some complaints could be traced back to 2015. The newest concerns were from March 2022.
Handelsblatt has revealed that within that time frame, Tesla noted 1,500 cases of issues related to braking, while 2,400 reports are about self-acceleration problems.
Some filed cases, including the 383 complaints, are centered on phantom braking, while 139 reports revolved around "unintentional emergency braking."
The anonymous whistleblower also unveiled how Tesla handles thousands of complaints based on its existing policies, Business Today wrote in its report.
"For each incident, there are bullet points for the "technical review." The employees who enter this review into the system regularly make it clear that the report is "for internal use only." Each entry also contains the note in bold print that information, if at all, may only be passed on "VERBALLY to the customer."
"Do not copy and paste the report below into an email, text message, or leave it in a voicemail to the customer," it said. Vehicle data should also not be released without permission. If, despite the advice, "an involvement of a lawyer cannot be prevented," this must be recorded."
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Did Tesla Deny the Leaked Document of Complaints?
In another report by Ars Technica on Friday, May 26, Handelsblatt said that it tried to contact Tesla regarding the sensational file leak.
As expected from a controversial company, Elon Musk or any other Tesla representative did not reply. However, Handelsblatt's editor-in-chief Sebastian Matthes said that Tesla wanted the stolen data to be returned to it. The automaker even requested the publication to delete all the other copies of the documents.
According to Tesla's Managing Counsel for Litigation, Joseph Alm, the possible leaker of the data could be a "disgruntled ex-employee" who has previous access to the company's files.
Alm said that any publication is not allowed to report "illegally obtained information." He added that Tesla will start the legal proceedings to sue the anonymous whistleblower for his "theft of Tesla's confidential information and employees' personal data."
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