car crash Bollards, slamming on the brakes to avoid an imaginary collision, and more than 2,400 complaints of cars accelerating out of control.100 GB worth of internal Tesla documents leaked to German newspaper Handelsblatt Presents a sobering picture of the technological limitations of electric vehicle companies.
23,000 documents acquired Handelsblatt Covering the period 2015 to March 2022 in Europe, the US and Asia, they appear to show serious flaws in Tesla’s self-driving technology. The disclosures could put the company under renewed pressure from regulators, who may scrutinize the reports for evidence that the company misled authorities or customers about the safety of its vehicles.
The leak could also heighten fears among Tesla investors and analysts that the company is losing its way. Its vaunted self-driving technology seems a long way from being safe enough for the road, and it can’t seem to move a viable new product from the drawing board to the showroom. Tesla, which hasn’t launched a new consumer car since 2020, is widely seen as lagging behind other automakers that are racing to develop new electric vehicles to meet rising demand. Half-covered in a barrage of revelations is a teaser teaser about Tesla’s long-awaited secret report on its “Cybertruck,” an angular pickup truck to be unveiled in 2019. This is unlikely to be good news.
“Tesla desperately needs a new credibility story,” said Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, director of the Center for Automotive Research in Duisburg, Germany.
The content of the leaked documents is shocking, and it tells the story of a near-death experience in the hands of Tesla Autopilot. But analysts said that was no surprise.
Matthias Schmidt, an independent auto analyst in Berlin, said: “For most of us, it’s no surprise that we’ve been following Tesla for a decade, and for most It may also come as no surprise to Tesla customers.”
Schmidt said Tesla has long taken a “move fast and break things” approach to product development, leading to concerns about whether new versions of it are ready to hit the road. There were 393 recorded fatalities involving Teslas, 33 of which involved Autopilot. Schmidt claimed that Musk “accepted that drivers died due to forwarding technology.” Musk did not respond to a request for comment for this story or to respond to Schmidt’s allegations.
It is often difficult to separate the Tesla brand from the personality of its CEO. Musk has typically brushed aside criticism of his products — usually through Twitter, which he bought for $44 billion last October. But Dudenhöffer said the scale of the German leak could make it harder for Musk to sell his version of the story.
“He has thousands of customer complaints and at the same time he’s telling people it’s the best product in the world,” Dudenhöffer said, comparing the controversy to the Volkswagen scandal in the mid-2010s when it It was found that the automaker has been downplaying the environmental impact of its vehicles.
Dudenhöffer, who blames Musk for Tesla’s mounting troubles, has divided his time between managing Tesla, his rocket company SpaceX and Twitter, which has been in a protracted state of crisis since taking over last year. “He should no longer be CEO and lead Tesla,” Dudenhoff said, “because he made one mistake after another.”
