Tesla workers shared a video of a naked customer recorded using the camera inside the vehicles designed to assist with driving, it has emerged.
An investigation by Reuters found that groups of Tesla employees privately shared invasive and sensitive videos captured on customer cameras between 2019 and 2022.
According to nine former employees, the videos - including one of a customer approaching a car completely naked - were shared in an internal messaging system.
One clip showed inside the garage of the firm’s owner, Elon Musk, former employees told the news agency.
Ex-employees also described a video of a car hitting a child at high speed and viewing “sexual wellness items” kept in private rooms.
The electric car company assures its millions of customers that their privacy “is and will always be enormously important to us.”
The cameras it builds into vehicles to assist driving, it notes on its website, are “designed from the ground up to protect your privacy.”
But the videos of intimate moments and crashes spread “like wildfire” in the Tesla office in San Mateo, California, ex-employees said.
Other images were more mundane, such as pictures of dogs and funny road signs that employees made into memes by embellishing them with amusing captions or commentary, before posting them in private group chats.
While some postings were only shared between two employees, others could be seen by scores of them, they claimed.
Tesla states in its online “Customer Privacy Notice” that its “camera recordings remain anonymous and are not linked to you or your vehicle.” But seven former employees told Reuters the computer program they used at work could show the location of recordings – which potentially could reveal where a Tesla owner lived.
One ex-employee also said that some recordings appeared to have been made when cars were parked and turned off.
Several years ago, Tesla would receive video recordings from its vehicles even when they were off, if owners gave consent. It has since stopped doing so.
“We could see inside people’s garages and their private properties,” said another former employee.
“Let’s say that a Tesla customer had something in their garage that was distinctive, you know, people would post those kinds of things.”
About three years ago, some employees stumbled upon and shared a video of a unique submersible vehicle parked inside a garage, according to two people who viewed it.
Nicknamed “Wet Nellie,” the white Lotus Esprit sub had been featured in the 1977 James Bond film, “The Spy Who Loved Me.”
The vehicle was owned by Mr Musk, who had bought it for about $968,000 (£777,956) at an auction in 2013.
It was not clear whether Mr Musk was aware of the video or that it had been shared.
Reuters contacted more than 300 former Tesla employees who had worked at the company over the past nine years and were involved in developing its self-driving system.
More than a dozen agreed to answer questions, all speaking on condition of anonymity. Nine said they had seen the videos of the crashes and intimate moments.
Reuters wasn’t able to obtain any of the shared videos or images, which ex-employees said they hadn’t kept.
The news agency also wasn’t able to determine if the practice of sharing recordings, which occurred within some parts of Tesla as recently as last year, continues today or how widespread it was.
Some former employees contacted said the only sharing they observed was for legitimate work purposes, such as seeking assistance from colleagues or supervisors.
Tesla and Mr Musk did not respond to requests for comment.
