crashed cars boulders, braking to avoid imaginary collisions, and more than 2,400 complaints of cars spinning out of their owner’s control. 100 gigabytes worth of internal Tesla documents German newspaper leaked handelsblatt EVs paint a grim picture of the company’s technological limitations.
23,000 files received by handelsblatt Covers issues in Europe, America and Asia between 2015 and March 2022, and they show serious flaws in Tesla’s Autopilot technology. The revelations could expose the company to fresh pressure from regulators, who are likely to look into reports looking for evidence that the company misled authorities or customers on the safety of its vehicles.
The leak could also add to a widespread concern among Tesla investors and analysts that the company has lost its way. Its acclaimed self-driving technology is a long way from being safe enough for the road, and it can’t take viable new products from the drawing board to the showroom. Tesla hasn’t launched a new consumer vehicle since 2020, and is widely seen as falling behind other automakers, which are ramping up their development of new EVs to meet rising demand. Half-hidden within the rush of revelations is a teaser for a cryptic report on Tesla’s long-awaited “Cybertruck,” a strangely angular pickup truck announced in 2019. This is not likely to be good news.
“Tesla urgently needs a new reliability story,” says Ferdinand Dudenhofer, director of the Automotive Research Center in Duisburg, Germany.
The contents of leaked documents dealing with near-death experiences at the hands of Tesla Autopilot are shocking. But analysts say this is not unexpected.
“For most of us who have been covering Tesla for a decade, this is not surprising, and it is also surprising for most of Tesla’s customers,” says Mathias Schmidt, an independent automotive analyst in Berlin.
Schmidt says Tesla has long taken a “move fast and break things” approach to developing products, which has raised concerns about whether its new releases are ready for the road. been there 393 recorded deaths Including Teslas, 33 of which include Autopilot. Schmidt alleges that Musk “acknowledges driver death as a result of forward-looking technology.” Musk did not respond to a request for comment for this story or to address Schmidt’s allegation.
It is often difficult to separate the Tesla brand from the character of its CEO. Musk has generally dismissed criticism of his products via Twitter, which he acquired last October for $44 billion. According to Dudenhofer, the scale of the German leak may make it harder for Musk to sell his version of the story.
“He has thousands of customer complaints, and at the same time he tells people it’s the best product in the world,” says Dudenhofer. Turns out the automaker had environmental impact is being underestimated of its vehicles.
Dudenhofer lays the blame for Tesla’s growing troubles on Musk, who splits his time between running Tesla, his rocket company SpaceX and Twitter, which has been in a state of perpetual crisis since its acquisition last year. “He should no longer be the CEO and lead Tesla,” Dudenhofer says, “because he makes mistake after mistake.”
