Tesla Workers Have Been Sharing Camera Footage From Customer Cars

According to the report, shared footage also includes someone being dragged into a car seemingly against their will and a naked man approaching his car in a garage.

The people that shared the material, and possibly still are, are the data labelers whose job it is to help train machines to learn automated tasks, including driving and parking. Tesla has employed hundreds of people since 2016 to review footage and identify pedestrians, street signs, construction vehicles, and other items cars experience on the road, in parking lots, or in people's garages.

Tesla has been increasingly automating the process and shut down the San Mateo, California, data-labeling hub last year. However, it has another hub in Buffalo, New York, where, in February, Tesla said the staff there had grown 54% over the previous six months to 675 people. This coincides with Tesla moving from ultrasonic sensors to Tesla Vision Cameras on the Model 3 and Model Y.

Of course, Elon Musk features in the report. According to two employees, a few years ago, an employee came across and shared a submersible vehicle parked inside a garage. It was the white Lotus Esprit submarine featured in the classic James Bond movie, "The Spy Who Loved Me." Its owner since 2013 is Musk, who paid $968,000 at an auction for the piece of movie memorabilia.

Neither Elon Musk nor Tesla as a brand has responded to requests for comment or direct questions. That's not a surprise, as Musk shut down the Tesla press relations department a long time ago. That means Tesla has nobody to calm this story down, but we should note that some of the former employees contacted said the only sharing they observed was for legitimate work purposes, including seeking assistance from colleagues or supervisors. However, the report also points out supervisors were also sharing or viewing the shared footage.