A former Tesla employee has provided testimony to the BBC, stating his belief that the technology driving Tesla’s autonomous vehicles is not sufficiently safe for use on public roads.
Lucasz Krupski revealed that data he leaked, including customer complaints about Tesla’s braking and autonomous driving software, was disclosed to the German newspaper Handelsblatt in May.
He claimed that his attempts to raise concerns internally were ignored.
Tesla did not respond to requests for comment.
Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, has promoted the company’s self-driving technology, asserting, “Tesla has by far the best real-world AI,” in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday.
However, in his first UK interview, Krupski told the BBC’s technology editor, Zoe Kleinman, that h h h he was concerned about how artificial intelligence was utilized in powering Tesla’s autopilot service.
Despite its name, Tesla’s autopilot feature, which includes assisted steering and parking, still requires someone in the driver’s seat with their hands on the wheel.
“I don’t think the hardware is ready, and the software is ready,” he said.
“It affects all of us because we are essentially experiments on public roads. So even if you don’t h h h have a Tesla, your children still walk on the sidewalk.”
Krupski claimed to have found evidence in company data suggesting that requirements for the safe operation of vehicles with a certain level of autonomous or assistive-driving technology had not been followed.
He also mentioned that Tesla employees had spoken to him about vehicles randomly braking in response to non-existent obstacles, known as “phantom braking.” This issue was also evident in the data he obtained from customer complaints.
Krupski stated that he felt compelled to share his findings with data protection authorities.
The US Department of Justice has been investigating Tesla over claims related to its assisted driving features since January.
Tesla has faced similar probes and questions from agencies, including the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, about its autopilot system.
The German newspaper Handelsblatt published the “Tesla Files” after Krupski shared 100GB of internal data he discovered.
The data protection authority in the Netherlands, where Tesla’s European headquarters are based, confirmed to the BBC that it had been notified of the data breach and was looking into the claim.
Difficulty in Getting Sound Sleep Krupski mentioned that the last six months and his experience as a whistleblower have been “terrifying.”
“I barely sleep at night sometimes,” he told the BBC.
However, his actions have been recognized by others, and he has been awarded the Blueprint for Free Speech Whistleblowing Prize.
Jack Stilgoe, an associate professor at University College London who researches autonomous vehicles, said Krupski’s claims raised broader concerns about the technology.
“This is a sort of test case of artificial intelligence in the wild, on the open road, surrounded by all the rest of us,” he said.
The UK Government announced plans for an Automated Vehicles Bill to outline a legal framework for self-driving cars in the King’s Speech in early November.
“We’ll have to see as the bill gets developed whether it grapples with all of the novel things about the technology,” Prof Stilgoe added.
