this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2025
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Tesla was caught withholding data, lying about it, and misdirecting authorities in the wrongful death case involving Autopilot that it lost this week.

The automaker was undeniably covering up for Autopilot.

Last week, a jury found Tesla partially liable for a wrongful death involving a crash on Autopilot. We now have access to the trial transcripts, which confirm that Tesla was extremely misleading in its attempt to place all the blame on the driver.

The company went as far as to actively withhold critical evidence that explained Autopilot’s performance around the crash. Within about three minutes of the crash, the Model S uploaded a “collision snapshot”—video, CAN‑bus streams, EDR data, etc.—to Tesla’s servers, the “Mothership”, and received an acknowledgement. The vehicle then deleted its local copy, resulting in Tesla being the only entity having access.

What ensued were years of battle to get Tesla to acknowledge that this collision snapshot exists and is relevant to the case.

The police repeatedly attempted to obtain the data from the collision snapshot, but Tesla led the authorities and the plaintiffs on a lengthy journey of deception and misdirection that spanned years.

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[–] Eddbopkins@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

a company doing unethical immoral things, purgery and lying to officials? thats been done a billion times already. Elon is no different then any other scum bag who runs the world.

[–] Gammelfisch@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

Another reason why Leon Hitler and Krasnov shut down the NTSB office that was investigating their shitty Autopilot system.

[–] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 3 points 6 days ago

Beta test of the Tesla Autolawyer huh?

[–] Mediocre_Bard@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

And the consequence will be ... ?

[–] danc4498@lemmy.world 219 points 1 week ago (24 children)

Within about three minutes of the crash, the Model S uploaded a “collision snapshot”—video, CAN‑bus streams, EDR data, etc.—to Tesla’s servers, the “Mothership”, and received an acknowledgement. The vehicle then deleted its local copy, resulting in Tesla being the only entity having access.

Holy fucking shit. What is the purpose of deleting the data on the vehicle other than to sabotage the owner of the vehicle?

[–] lividweasel@lemmy.world 63 points 1 week ago (3 children)

That jumped out at me too. Giving the benefit of the doubt, it could be that this “snapshot” includes a very large amount of data that could be problematic if stored locally for longer. In reality, they probably do it this way for exactly this type of situation, so they can retain full control of the potentially-damning data.

[–] Eheran@lemmy.world 61 points 1 week ago (3 children)

If they can transmit it, it is not a lot. It is that simple.

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[–] Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com 29 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Bullshit. It was saved locally. It can stay saved locally but be marked for deletion if storage gets tight. This is a solved computer science problem.

There is zero reason to delete it immediate except to cover their asses.

If I was on the jury I'd be pushing for maximum monetary penalty.

[–] hodgepodgin@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Agreed, if there was concern about the data falling into the wrong hands then there’s many different ways to secure the data (encryption w/ a secure enclave, masking, hardening) besides just deleting it. Tesla’s strategy here totally foregoes any typical data retention lifecycle like you mention, which is usually to delete old data that has little to no benefit besides just adding additional risk (e.g. trips older than 1 year or if there’s no space left). Plus you have to take into account the additional consequences you take on by deleting the data locally such as not being in compliance with regulations, and potentially risking sanctions or heavy fines.

[–] Sprocketfree@sh.itjust.works 4 points 6 days ago

Treble damages

[–] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 25 points 1 week ago

That's not "benefit of the doubt", that's "playing devil's advocate". They probably used something like this.

[–] Bane_Killgrind@lemmy.dbzer0.com 54 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Smells like intentional destruction of evidence.

[–] Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Criminal destruction of evidence.

Criminal withholding of evidence.

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[–] alvyn@discuss.tchncs.de 14 points 1 week ago

The only thing making this nazi company its market value and all the hype is promis of self driving. The autopilot technology is the main value. If there will be proof of it is wrong, Tesla gonna loose the investors. Simply as that, fucking nazi Musk cannot allow proof that his shitty car killed peoples because of the autopilot. I recommend to search for podcast and reporting by The Guardian on this theme. I’m really looking forward to read the book Tesla files. It’s from the journalist who was contacted by Tesla whistleblower. There are thousands cases when the autopilot started to behave just “little crazy”.

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[–] PedestrianError@towns.gay 149 points 1 week ago (1 children)

@DrunkEngineer A normal company fires its CEO and cleans house after something like that. Instead Tesla just offered him a big new compensation package to encourage him to stay and keep destroying their reputation and any shred of morality they may claim to have.

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 29 points 1 week ago (1 children)

A particular insurance company replaced a mysteriously dead executive with another who doubled down on premeditated murder.

[–] Mediocre_Bard@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

Same walking route?

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 98 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You would think that’s a crime

[–] Aeao@lemmy.world 73 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Laws only apply to poor people

[–] UltraMagnus0001@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Poor people get looked down upon, including by poor people

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[–] BrotherL0v3@lemmy.world 96 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Folks. Publicly traded companies will ALWAYS compare the expected value of breaking the law with compliance.

Say it costs $100 million to follow the law. Breaking it comes with a $300 million fine, but only a 20% chance of getting caught.

They compare a 100% chance of paying $100 million to a 20% chance of paying $300 million.

Average cost of following the law: $100 million

Average cost of breaking it: $60 million

If we're gonna do capitalism (which I would rather we not, for the record!), we have to make that expected value calculation break in favor of following regulations. If it is cheaper to break the law than to follow it, you're not just losing money by complying: you're giving ground to your competition. Fines need to be massive. Infractions need to get caught and punished. Executives need to be held personally accountable. Corporations need to be dissolved. Fines cannot be just the cost of doing business.

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 46 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Do people need to (re)watch Fight Club?

Narrator:

A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside.

Now, should we initiate a recall?

Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X.

If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one.

It's been like 25 years.

Did people like... genuienly not know this, forget about it?

[–] DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago (3 children)

The conditioning of people to think it must be monetary fines is strong I guess. Imo it shouldn't be a fine for intentionally breaking laws, especially when putting lives in danger. It should be jail time for the executives. Make the calculation disappear altogether.

[–] lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Do a China and just execute them.

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[–] unphazed@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'd raise you in that. Companies are people now. If companies break laws, they should be held accountable personally. Even Club Fed would be misery for 14 years on a murder rap.

[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago (4 children)

I'd argue the entire C-suite should be legally responsible for anything the company does.

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[–] gac11@lemmy.world 45 points 1 week ago
[–] teamevil@lemmy.world 41 points 1 week ago

Remember they also defanged the regulations they were subject too also

[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 32 points 1 week ago

Isn't this how murderers act? This sounds like they "accidentally" (collateral damage) killed people and then are trying to cover it up.

[–] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 29 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Just following Dear Leader's example.

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[–] Glitterbomb@lemmy.world 28 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I swear I'm not a tesla fan boy but I'm going to sit here and pull baseless excuses out of my ass for two paragraphs in order to defend this terrible company headed by a literal nazi.

— this entire fucking comment section

[–] SlartyBartFast@sh.itjust.works 23 points 1 week ago
[–] Psythik@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Is this the one where the car crashes after Autopilot turns off? Where Tesla tries to claim that the driver floored it after it turned off?

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[–] MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago

Musk = POS Nazi.

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago

I really wish Roosevelt was around to smash these companies into pieces for this shit.

[–] pyre@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago
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