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The German magazine Handelsblatt is in possession of more than 23,000 internal Tesla files and documents after an employee leaked the data. The files contain personal information on more than 100,000 current and former employees, as well as thousands of reports of problems with Tesla’s advanced driver assistance systems, Autopilot and “Full Self-Driving”.
The earliest complaints in the database date from 2015 and the most recent from March 2022. Most complaints come from the US, although European and Asian customer issues are also reflected in the data.
More than 2,400 complaints are about sudden unintentional acceleration problems. While Autopilot and FSD have been the focus of attention in recent years, the mid-2010s saw plenty of reports of Teslas taking off of their own accord – at least 232 cases have been reported in the US, although (as is often in cases like this), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found no evidence of a hardware or software problem, instead blaming the driver.
More than 1,500 complaints of brake problems, including 139 cases of phantom brakes and 383 cases of phantom stops. In February 2022, we learned that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had opened a safety investigation into Tesla’s phantom brake problem after receiving hundreds of complaints after an article in The Washington Post drew attention to the issue. But the problem persisted, causing an eight-car collision over Thanksgiving after Tesla opened its FSD Beta program to all owners.
Handelsblatt says there were more than 1,000 accidents related to brake problems and more than 3,000 submissions in which customers reported safety issues with the driver assistance systems.
The German publication even took the trouble to contact Tesla owners to confirm that the data was correct.
For example, a doctor from California, who wishes to remain anonymous, told Handelsblatt about an incident from the fall of 2021. She was about to pull into a parking lot when her Tesla suddenly accelerated like a race car. “I tried to steer but hit a concrete bollard,” the customer recalls. “It fell over, but the car didn’t stop. I drove into the nearest bollard. The airbag went off and I was amazed.”
Between January and October 2021, the Swiss Thomas Karl complained to Tesla about a dozen erroneous braking attempts with his vehicle. Karl had been a regular customer for ten years. But his new Model S made him nervous, according to email correspondence with Tesla.
“Hello gentlemen, believe me I’m starting to lose heart?” Karl wrote about another incident on July 26, 2021. His Tesla had an accident on the Swiss A3 between Flums and Sargans “after being overhauled, the vehicle made an emergency stop that frightened and worried”.
According to Manfred Schon, he experienced something similar on the M14 motorway. The former Bosch employee was on his way to a meeting in the US state of Michigan on June 1, 2019, when his Tesla “suddenly slammed on the brakes, as hard as you can imagine,” Schon told Handelsblatt. “I was put in the seat belt and the car almost came to a stop. Then another car hit me from behind.”
Tesla’s files contain similar cases in Germany. A customer complained that his Tesla “ran into a median on the highway”. The reason was the emergency braking of the autopilot. Another reported to customer service about his Model S: “Runs into oncoming traffic.”
Aside from customer complaints, the data breach also shows how Tesla responded to these issues — by committing as little as possible in writing.
For each incident there are spearheads for the “technical assessment”. The employees who enter this assessment into the system regularly make it clear that the report is intended for “internal use only”. Each item also has a bold statement that information, if any, should only be passed “VERBALLY TO THE CUSTOMER”.
“Do not copy the report below into an email, SMS or leave it on a voicemail to the customer,” it continues. Vehicle data may also not be released without permission. If, despite the advice, “legal involvement cannot be avoided”, this must be recorded.
Customers Handelsblatt spoke to have the impression that Tesla employees avoid written communication. “They never sent emails, everything was always verbal,” says the California doctor, whose Tesla said he accelerated on his own in the fall of 2021 and crashed into two concrete pillars.
As anyone covering Tesla can tell you, Handelsblatt got no response from the company when it questioned it about the issues mentioned above. The automaker did demand its data back, according to an accompanying letter from the editor of Handelsblatt.
