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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: 0.217s | source
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fabian2k ◴[29 Aug 25 12:38 UTC] No.45063298[source]▶
Do I understand it correctly? Crash data gets automatically transmitted to Tesla, and after it was transmitted is immediately marked for deletion?

If that is actually designed like this, the only reason I could see for it would be so that Tesla has sole access to the data and can decide whether to use it or not. Which really should not work in court, but it seems it has so far.

And of course I'd expect an audit trail for the deletion of crash data on Tesla servers. But who knows whether there actually isn't one, or nobody looked into it at all.

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1. FireBeyond ◴[29 Aug 25 15:44 UTC] No.45065580[source]▶
Absolutely so.

I don't know how accurate it is right now, but previously, people have had to sue Tesla to get telemetry data from their own vehicle, not to use against Tesla, but to use in accident lawsuits against other parties.

Meanwhile, without your consent, Tesla will hold press conferences using your telemetry data to throw you under the bus (even deceptively) to defend themselves. "The vehicle had told the driver to pay attention!" NHTSA, four months later: "The vehicle had issued one inattention alert, eighteen minutes prior to the collision." (emphasis mine)