Handelsblatt reports that it has obtained a large amount of information from internal Tesla sources about thousands of complaints about Autopilot over the past few years. According to Jalopnik, the collection contained 23,000 internal document files, which included complaints from 2015 to March 2022. During that time, the automaker received about 2,400 reports of auto-acceleration problems and about 1,500 reports of braking problems . The latest information includes 139 reports of unintended emergency braking and 383 reports of false collision warnings.
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Additionally, the files appear to contain more than 1,000 crash reports and a list of 3,000 incidents in which drivers expressed concerns about the safety of Tesla’s Autopilot system. While most of the reports are from the United States, some complaints have also been filed by owners in Europe and Asia. Handelsblatt contacted several customers from the files to confirm their reports, and some of them even provided videos related to them.
In addition to thousands of safety complaints, the files appear to have included instructions for employees on how to communicate with customers. They were apparently told not to copy and paste incident reports into emails, and not to leave information as voicemail recordings. They could only communicate with customers verbally to relay the information.
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Handelsblatt editor-in-chief Sebastian Matthes said a team of 12 people reviewed and evaluated the files over six months. “The data paints a picture of an electric car pioneer that appears to have much bigger technological problems than previously known. With its autopilot, for example. Tesla files contain thousands of reports of complications with Autopilot systems,” he wrote.
He said his team sent a list of questions to Tesla, but the car company decided not to answer them. Tesla's General Counsel, Joseph Alm, said there was a data theft and that information derived from illegal actions in the media unless there are exceptional circumstances.
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Alm countered that a “disgruntled former employee” used her access as a service technician to violate the agreement and leak information before leaving the company. Tesla will not file a lawsuit against its former employee for stealing Tesla’s confidential information and its employees’ personal data.
