An alleged Tesla former employee leaked a significant amount of data about the electric automaker to the German publication Handelsblatt, which now shares the information with the public.
Unfortunately for the electric vehicle giant, the “Tesla Files” disclosures do not paint a favorable picture of the company.
How Tesla handles customer complaints?
The 100-gigabyte leaked data unveiled alarming information regarding Tesla’s current method of addressing customer complaints, especially on its driver assistance systems.
“The data paints the picture of an electric car pioneer who seems to have far greater technological problems than previously known. With its autopilot, for example. The Tesla files contain thousands of reports of complications with the driver assistance systems. Complaints of Tesla vehicles suddenly braking at full speed. Or accelerate suddenly.”
Handelsblatt
Many accidents resulted in minor injuries, while some resulted in fatalities. Notably, there are almost 3,000 entries in the Tesla files about alleged autopilot safety problems.
However, what’s disturbing is that Tesla apparently instructs its employees to only address customer complaints verbally, AutoBlog reports citing an Insider. Indeed, this approach is a strategic way to ensure that there would not be any written records of the issues.
As mentioned by the German publication, most customer complaints involve brake and acceleration issues, which sometimes cause car crashes.
For instance, a Californian doctor complained that his Tesla car suddenly accelerated on its own and crashed into concrete posts in 2021.
“They never sent emails, everything was always verbal.”
Californian doctor/complainant (via Handelsblatt)
Even more, Tesla also reportedly instructed its employees to “not copy and paste the report below into an email, text message, or leave it in a voicemail to the customer,” per the files leaked to Handelsblatt.
Apart from these complaint issues, Tesla also recently updated its suspension system for Full Self-Driving policy violators from 2 weeks to only one week.
See Also:
- Authorities investigate the “Tesla files” leak for possible data privacy violations
- Tesla wins bellwether case over Autopilot car crash
- Tesla Autopilot scores lower in driver assistance ratings, according to a testing group
- Tesla engineer alleged the company faked a “full autopilot” video
- Tesla Autopilot prevents an accident in Louisiana
Undoubtedly, these matters put Tesla’s FSD system even more in doubt. With all these data leak issues, Tesla demanded the German publication to delete the “stolen” files and warned of legal action against the publication.
