A former Tesla employee has come forward, voicing serious concerns about the safety and readiness of Tesla’s ‘Autopilot’ system for public road use. According to the whistleblower, “I don’t think the hardware is ready and the software is ready.”
BBC News reports that Lukasz Krupski, a former Tesla employee in Norway, has recently expressed skepticism regarding the safety of Tesla’s ‘Autopilot’ system. In an interview with the BBC, Krupski raised concerns about both the software and hardware aspects of Tesla’s driver assistance technology. He leaked around 100 gigabytes of data, including customer complaints about Tesla’s phantom braking and the Full Self-Driving package, to the German business newspaper Handelsblatt.
Elon Musk shades his eyes in front of a Tesla ( Maja Hitij /Getty)
Krupski’s concerns were primarily ignored by Tesla’s higher-ups, leading him to take the matter public. The leaked data suggest that Tesla might not have followed proper safety protocols in its driver assist technology. Krupski highlighted instances of Tesla’s “phantom braking,” a phenomenon where the vehicle unexpectedly applies brakes, which he describes as unnerving and dangerous.
Tesla, on its part, claims its driver assistance software is relatively safe. According to Tesla, there was one airbag deployment crash for every five million miles driven with ‘autopilot’ in 2022, a figure not independently verified. This rate compares favorably against the national average and non-autopilot driving figures.
However, Krupski’s whistleblowing extends beyond just safety concerns. He claims he was fired for documenting unsafe practices within Tesla, like photographing a rolling table, overloaded with a heavy battery, which was a violation of Tesla’s company policy. The leaked data also included sensitive information about Tesla employees and thousands of accident reports, raising concerns about Tesla’s handling of internal information and employee privacy.
Breitbart News has reported extensively on Tesla’s various autopilot crashes and issues as well as previous claims of unsafe working conditions at Tesla factories.
Read more at BBC here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.