Tesla workers shared images from car cameras, including “scenes of intimacy”
Enlarge / Tesla Model X SUV at the European Motor Show on January 9, 2020, in Brussels, Belgium. (credit: Getty Images | Sjoerd van der Wal)
From 2019 to at least mid-2022, Tesla employees used an internal messaging system to share "sometimes highly invasive videos and images recorded by customers' car cameras," according to a lengthy Reuters report based on interviews with nine former Tesla employees.
Although Tesla says its in-car cameras are "designed from the ground up to protect your privacy," today's Reuters report described employees as having easy access to the cameras' output and sharing that freely with other employees:
Some of the recordings caught Tesla customers in embarrassing situations. One ex-employee described a video of a man approaching a vehicle completely naked.
Also shared: crashes and road-rage incidents. One crash video in 2021 showed a Tesla driving at high speed in a residential area hitting a child riding a bike, according to another ex-employee. The child flew in one direction, the bike in another. The video spread around a Tesla office in San Mateo, California, via private one-on-one chats, "like wildfire," the ex-employee said.
There were "pictures of dogs and funny road signs that employees made into memes by embellishing them with amusing captions or commentary, before posting them in private group chats." Some posts could be seen by "scores" of employees.