Topline
Former Tesla employees say intimate photos and videos of owners taken by the electric vehicles’ built-in cameras were widely shared among workers despite the company’s privacy protections, Reuters reported Thursday, claims that add to mounting controversy over Tesla’s various high-tech features.
Tesla’s recording system has garnered international controversy over privacy concerns.
Key Facts
Between 2019 and 2022, recordings of Tesla owners were privately shared via the company’s internal messaging system, catching customers naked, showing their kids and sometimes revealing their locations, nine ex-employees told Reuters.
Some of the images were reportedly turned into memes featuring customers’ dogs and funny road signs, while others depicted car crashes and road-rage incidents, including one video of a Tesla crashing into a child riding a bike—but many were distributed to scores of employees.
Tesla’s cameras are intended to record driving incidents, as well as power the autopilot and autopark features by recognizing street signs, traffic lights and other roadside obstacles.
The company also employs hundreds of workers to label photos taken by Teslas to help the cars’ systems recognize common obstacles, in turn giving employees access to these recordings.
The cameras, known as Dashcams, are mounted in the car to record footage of a vehicle’s surroundings only when it’s powered on, according to the company’s website—but one former employee told Reuters some recordings appeared to be taken when the car was parked and turned off.
Contra
In its privacy policy, Tesla assures customers it does not associate the vehicle data generated by driving with the drivers’ identities, and does not share location or customers’ activities with anyone. Tesla owners can consent for data sharing, which allows camera recordings to be shared with the company. Even if customers consent, recordings are supposed to remain anonymous and not be linked to the individual, however.
Key Background
Tesla has faced controversy for its workplace culture and business practices, as well as its product, including concerns that the autopilot and “Full Self-Driving” features included in some Tesla models have caused crashes and are unsafe for drivers. The company recalled hundreds of thousands of vehicles earlier this year to update their autopilot software, and Tesla is facing autopilot-related investigations by the Justice Department and other agencies. Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” feature could also skirt a California law that bars carmakers from advertising their autopilot technology as fully autonomous, since Tesla has admitted the auto-driving feature still requires constant attention from the driver.
Tangent
Tesla’s high-tech recording capabilities have raised international privacy concerns in the past. Its sentry mode system, which is an external camera meant to protect from theft or vandalism, has been the center of disputes claiming it could lead to non-consensual filming. On Tuesday, Tesla warned sentry mode could infringe on data privacy laws in Germany after consumer group VZBV sued the company for failing to mention this potential violation in its advertising, and some parts of China have banned Teslas due to concerns over filming. A data protection agency in the Netherlands concluded an investigation of sentry mode in February, but it found recording was the responsibility of the car owner and not the company, and chose not to punish Tesla after the company rolled out features to alert people to the recording system.
What We Don’t Know
It’s unclear whether these breaches of privacy are still ongoing, since those interviewed by Reuters no longer work at Tesla. The company did not respond to Forbes’ request for comment.
Further Reading
What Tesla’s Sentry Mode Can Teach Us About The Privacy Versus Security Debate (Forbes)
