Tesla staffers are accused of sharing clips of unwitting customers recorded by cars’ cameras

A bombshell of new reports have exposed Tesla employees as sharing customer videos, including one showing a naked man approaching a car, another showing “sexual wellness items,” while yet another exposes Elon Musk as owner of the white Lotus submarine from The Spy Who Loved Me.

The leaked clips were all recorded on Tesla’s integrated dashcams and shared between 2019 and 2022 via the internal messaging network Mattermost, Reuters reports.

An employee told the agency that the clips spread “like wildfire” through the company, with some even using the videos to create memes.

“We saw them doing laundry and doing very intimate things. We could see their children,” the staffer said. According to the report, the camera was able to capture people’s lives because it was charging.

Tesla employees, known as labelers, who work with the company’s AI system to help it identify things in everyday life, were aware of the footage. In fact, according to the report, those who shared the funniest clips earned promotions at Tesla.

“People who were promoted to leadership positions shared a lot of these funny items and became notorious for being funny,” a labeler told Reuters.

At times, Tesla executives cracked down on inappropriate image sharing on public Mattermost channels, claiming the practice violated company policy.

Still, screenshots and memes based on them continued to circulate through private chats on the platform, several ex-employees said. In the middle of last year, employees shared them one-on-one or in small groups.

One of the perks of working for Tesla as a data labeler in San Mateo was the chance to win a prize: the use of a company car for a day or two, according to two former employees.

But some of the lucky winners became paranoid when driving the electric cars.

“Knowing how much data those vehicles can collect certainly made people nervous,” said one former employee.

Tesla vehicles equipped with self-driving capabilities are equipped with eight cameras.

The cameras help with self-driving and parking. “No one but you would know about your activities, location or a history of where you’ve been,” reads the auto giant’s privacy policy.

However, staffers told Reuters that cameras capture street signs and other landmarks that can easily identify a driver’s whereabouts. The privacy policy does not state how employees handle the recorded images.

“We could look into people’s garages and their private property. Let’s say a Tesla customer had something in their garage that was distinctive, you know, people would post stuff like that,” a former employee told Reuters.

About three years ago, some employees discovered and shared a video of a unique underwater vehicle parked in a garage, according to two people who viewed it.

Nicknamed ‘Wet Nellie’, the white Lotus Esprit submarine was featured in the 1977 James Bond movie, The Spy Who Loved Me.

Musk, who bought it at auction in 2013 for about $968,000. It’s not clear if Musk was aware of the video or if it was shared.

Two ex-employees said they weren’t bothered by image sharing, said customers had given their consent or people had long ago given up any reasonable expectation to keep personal information private.

However, three others said they were affected.

“It was an invasion of privacy, to be honest. And I used to joke that I would never buy a Tesla after seeing how they treated some of these people,” said a former employee.

Another said: ‘It bothers me because I don’t think the people buying the car know that their privacy is not respected… We could see them doing laundry and doing very intimate things. We could see their children.’

Tesla’s “sentry mode,” which senses a car’s surroundings, has sparked a series of disputes in countries from China to the Netherlands.

The company says the feature is to protect against theft or vandalism, but authorities’ concerns lead to unauthorized filming.

A lawsuit filed in Germany in July by the consumer advocacy group VZBZ alleged that the carmaker misled consumers by not informing them in advertisements that the driver could be in breach of data protection regulations if the feature was used in public areas and passers-by without their consent filmed. knowledge.

Following a hearing on the matter in Berlin, the company issued a statement saying it would no longer advertise that way, according to a statement from VZBZ.

The car manufacturer’s manual for US buyers states that “it is your sole responsibility to review and comply with all local regulations and property restrictions regarding the use of cameras.”

Reuters contacted more than 300 former Tesla employees who had worked for the company over the past nine years and were involved in the development of the self-driving system.

More than a dozen agreed to answer questions, all on the condition of anonymity.

Reuters was unable to obtain any of the shared videos or images, which ex-employees said they had not kept.

The news agency was also unable to determine whether the practice of recording sharing, which took place in some parts of Tesla last year, still continues or how widespread it was.

Some former employees contacted said the only sharing they observed was for legitimate work purposes, such as seeking help from colleagues or supervisors.