Shocking Leaked Tesla Documents Hint at Cybertruck Problems | WITH CABLE

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cars crashing into bollards, slamming brakes to avoid imaginary collisions, and more than 2,400 complaints of cars speeding out of their owners’ control. He 100 gigabytes of internal Tesla documents leaked to german newspaper handelsblatt they present a sobering picture of the technical limitations of the EV company.

The 23,000 files obtained by handelsblatt they cover problems in Europe, the US and Asia between 2015 and March 2022, and appear to show serious flaws in Tesla’s autopilot technology. The disclosures could see the company face new pressure from regulators, who are likely to scrutinize the reports for evidence that the company has misled authorities or customers about the safety of its vehicles.

The leaks may also reinforce a widespread concern among Tesla investors and analysts that the company has lost its way. Its vaunted self-driving technology seems a long way from being safe enough for the road, and it can’t seem to move viable new products from the drawing board to the showroom. Tesla hasn’t released a new consumer vehicle since 2020, and it’s widely viewed as falling behind other car manufacturers, which are stepping up the development of new electric vehicles to meet the growing demand. Half hidden among the flood of revelations is a sneak peek of a secret report on Tesla’s long-awaited “Cybertruck,” a oddly angular van announced in 2019. This is unlikely to be good news.

“Tesla badly needs a new credibility story,” says Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, director of the Center for Automotive Research in Duisburg, Germany.

The content of the leaked documents is shocking, with accounts of near-death experiences at the hands of Tesla’s Autopilot. But analysts say it’s not unexpected.

“For most of us who have been covering Tesla for a decade, this isn’t all that surprising, and probably not for most Tesla customers either,” says Matthias Schmidt, an independent automotive analyst in Berlin.

Schmidt says Tesla has long taken a “move fast and break things” approach to developing products, raising concerns about whether its new launches are road-ready. Has been 393 recorded deaths involving Teslas, 33 of which involved Autopilot. Schmidt alleges that Musk “accepts the death of the driver as a consequence of the forwarding technology.” Musk did not respond to a request for comment for this story or address Schmidt’s allegation.

It’s often hard to separate the Tesla brand from the character of its CEO. Musk has generally shrugged off criticism of his products, often via Twitter, which he acquired for $44 billion last October. But the scale of the German leaks could make it difficult for Musk to sell his side of the story, according to Dudenhöffer.

“It has thousands of pieces of information, of customer complaints, and at the same time it tells people that it is the best product in the world,” says Dudenhöffer, comparing the controversy to a scandal at Volkswagen in the mid-2010s. , when it was discovered that the automaker had minimizing environmental impact of their vehicles.

Dudenhöffer blames Tesla’s growing problems on Musk, who divides his time between Tesla’s management, his rocket company SpaceX and Twitter, which has been in a permanent state of crisis since it took control last year. “He should no longer be the CEO or lead Tesla,” says Dudenhöffer, “because he makes mistake after mistake after mistake.”