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Tesla said it didn't have key data in a fatal crash, then a hacker found it

(www.washingtonpost.com)
650 points clcaev | 1 comments | 29 Aug 25 11:15 UTC | HN request time: 0.205s | source
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metaphor ◴[29 Aug 25 12:25 UTC] No.45063162[source]▶
> Immediately after the wreck at 9:14 p.m. on April 25, 2019, the crucial data detailing how it unfolded was automatically uploaded to the company’s servers and stored in a vast central database, according to court documents. Tesla’s headquarters soon sent an automated message back to the car confirming that it had received the collision snapshot.

> Moments later, court records show, the data was just as automatically “unlinked” from the 2019 Tesla Model S at the scene, meaning the local copy was marked for deletion, a standard practice for Teslas in such incidents, according to court testimony.

Wow...just wow.

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raincole ◴[29 Aug 25 13:09 UTC] No.45063632[source]▶
The 'wow' part is that they deleted data from server. The part you quoted sounds like nothing unusual to me.
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lexicality ◴[29 Aug 25 13:16 UTC] No.45063732[source]▶
You don't think it's unusual that the software is designed to delete crash data from the crashed car?
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phkahler ◴[29 Aug 25 13:46 UTC] No.45064066[source]▶
>> You don't think it's unusual that the software is designed to delete crash data from the crashed car?

After it confirmed upload to the server? What if it was a minor collision? The car may be back on the road the same day, or get repaired and on the road next week. How long should it retain data (that is not legally required to be logged) that has already been archived, and how big does the buffer need to be?

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1. lexicality ◴[29 Aug 25 13:52 UTC] No.45064162[source]▶
A very simple answer is "until the next time the car crashes", you just replace the previous crash data with the new data.

If the car requires that a certain amount of storage is always available to write crash data to, then it doesn't matter what's in that particular area of storage. That reserved storage is always going to be unavailable for other general use.