Former Tesla employees have spoken out about how videos of customers in highly inappropriate situations—recorded by their own cars—were circulating among staff. Tesla models have a built-in camera designed to assist drivers in operating the vehicle or to collect data for future Tesla development; however, the company claimed that it had ensured customer privacy. Customers, therefore, had no reason to fear any invasion of privacy. But what was actually happening at Tesla?
Tesla cars are equipped with a camera. This camera is designed to assist
drivers in operating the vehicle, but it also records videos and images for Tesla.
These videos are then used for the further development of cars and autonomous vehicle technology. This
diverse data helps developers program the autonomous vehicle system to handle various
situations. When implementing these cameras, Tesla established strict data protection measures. On
the one hand, neither the images nor the videos are linked to the vehicle owner. They are sent to Tesla
anonymously. On the other hand, the vehicle owner had to consent to the recording before
it could take place. Tesla treats the protection of its
customers’ personal and sensitive data as its top priority.
Reuters interviewed nine former Tesla employees, who revealed
how their customers’ videos were handled. The videos they received were supposed to be used
solely for analysis and development. However, the videos were often shared within Tesla’s internal
system. Employees shared among themselves many seemingly humorous clips of
people falling, funny animals, and various other scenes captured by the car’s camera. Some
employees, however, stated that the content they shared often crossed the line. Cars parked
in customers’ garages recorded them during everyday activities, such as doing laundry or
playing with their children. At the same time, they also captured many bizarre situations, such as a man walking naked
to his car to get something or a couple in an intimate moment. There was even a video of a driver hitting
a child on a bicycle. These and many other videos were shared on Tesla’s internal network. As
employees noted, the funnier or more bizarre the footage was, the more
popular you became.
Once, a clip from a garage made the rounds among employees, showing a special submersible
vehicle nicknamed “Wet Nellie”—a white Lotus Esprit submarine that appeared in the 1977 James Bond
film *The Spy Who Loved Me*. It was later discovered that this video came directly
from the garage of Tesla CEO Elon Musk. To this day, it remains unclear whether he knew about this
video or not.
Employees also stated in an interview that none of the videos or images were ever leaked
to the public and that employees did not save them. A
cybersecurity expert also commented on this behavior, calling it inhumane and immoral.
For example, in China, there are places where these cars have been completely banned from entering due to concerns about recording.
Ultimately, Tesla was not fined; in fact, they made a modification to
the vehicle so that passersby would know they were being recorded.
