Doubts over the safety of Tesla’s self-driving cars are growing as a former Tesla employee warned that they are not safe enough to be used on public roads.
Lukasz Krupski leaked data, including customer complaints about Tesla’s braking and self-driving software, to German newspaper Handelsblatt. He said attempts to highlight his concerns internally had been ignored.
Krupski told the BBC he was concerned about how AI was being used – to power Tesla’s autopilot service. Its autopilot feature, for example, includes assisted steering and parking – but, despite its name, it does still require 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 in public roads. So even if you don’t have a Tesla, your children still walk in the footpath.”
Krupski said he had found evidence in company data that suggested that requirements relating to the safe operation of vehicles that had a certain level of autonomous or assistive-driving technology had not been followed.
He added that even Tesla employees had spoken to him about vehicles randomly braking in response to non-existent obstacles – known as “phantom braking”. This also came up in the data he obtained around customer complaints.
Greek engineer questions the safety of Tesla cars
Earlier in the year, a Greek engineer and accident investigator filed a petition to the US authorities demanding a recall of all Tesla vehicles due to a technical fault.
Costas Lakafossis, who is based in Athens, is petitioning the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to recall all 1.6 million Teslas over their ability to shift from Drive to Reverse without touching the brake pedal.
“I am not turning against Tesla. I just wanted to highlight the dangerous deficiency of vehicles that can cost lives. I felt I had the responsibility to alert the US authorities,” he told Greek Reporter.
The Greek scientist said that he began looking at the Tesla deficiency when a Tesla driver lost control of his vehicle in Athens as he was attempting to park outside his office. Instead of the car braking, it inexplicably accelerated, smashing against other cars and a wall.
“I watched the video from a security camera. It was a horrifying accident. The driver felt betrayed by his smart car.”
Concerns over the safety of Tesla’s Cybertruck
On Monday software expert and founder of safety advocacy group The Dawn Project, Dan O’Dowd issued a warning to prospective Cybertruck owners, arguing that the critical safety defects in Tesla’s self-driving software, also available in the new Cybertruck, may present a danger to road users.
Commenting on Cybertruck’s launch, O’Dowd said: “A Full Self-Driving Cybertruck is a three-ton AI-driven robot powered by software which has already resulted in at least 27 deaths.
“Elon Musk has claimed for nine years that Tesla is on the verge of solving autonomous driving. In that time, Tesla has released four new vehicles, powered by a Full Self-Driving software that often fails to obey basic traffic laws and can put lives at risk.”
Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, has championed its self-driving technology. “Tesla has by far the best real-world AI,” Mr Musk said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday.
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