Tesla was caught withholding data, lying about it, and misdirecting authorities in the wrongful death case involving Autopilot that it lost this week.

The automaker was undeniably covering up for Autopilot.

Last week, a jury found Tesla partially liable for a wrongful death involving a crash on Autopilot. We now have access to the trial transcripts, which confirm that Tesla was extremely misleading in its attempt to place all the blame on the driver.

The company went as far as to actively withhold critical evidence that explained Autopilot’s performance around the crash. Within about three minutes of the crash, the Model S uploaded a “collision snapshot”—video, CAN‑bus streams, EDR data, etc.—to Tesla’s servers, the “Mothership”, and received an acknowledgement. The vehicle then deleted its local copy, resulting in Tesla being the only entity having access.

What ensued were years of battle to get Tesla to acknowledge that this collision snapshot exists and is relevant to the case.

The police repeatedly attempted to obtain the data from the collision snapshot, but Tesla led the authorities and the plaintiffs on a lengthy journey of deception and misdirection that spanned years.

  • BrotherL0v3@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    97
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 days ago

    Folks. Publicly traded companies will ALWAYS compare the expected value of breaking the law with compliance.

    Say it costs $100 million to follow the law. Breaking it comes with a $300 million fine, but only a 20% chance of getting caught.

    They compare a 100% chance of paying $100 million to a 20% chance of paying $300 million.

    Average cost of following the law: $100 million

    Average cost of breaking it: $60 million

    If we’re gonna do capitalism (which I would rather we not, for the record!), we have to make that expected value calculation break in favor of following regulations. If it is cheaper to break the law than to follow it, you’re not just losing money by complying: you’re giving ground to your competition. Fines need to be massive. Infractions need to get caught and punished. Executives need to be held personally accountable. Corporations need to be dissolved. Fines cannot be just the cost of doing business.

    • DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      21
      ·
      2 days ago

      The conditioning of people to think it must be monetary fines is strong I guess. Imo it shouldn’t be a fine for intentionally breaking laws, especially when putting lives in danger. It should be jail time for the executives. Make the calculation disappear altogether.

    • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      47
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      Do people need to (re)watch Fight Club?

      Narrator:

      A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside.

      Now, should we initiate a recall?

      Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X.

      If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don’t do one.

      It’s been like 25 years.

      Did people like… genuienly not know this, forget about it?

    • unphazed@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      2 days ago

      I’d raise you in that. Companies are people now. If companies break laws, they should be held accountable personally. Even Club Fed would be misery for 14 years on a murder rap.

        • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          2 days ago

          The CEO in particular IMO, unless it’s financial (CFO) or tech (CTO, CIO).

          However, it’s already the CEO’s job to take the heat in public so the board doesn’t have to.

          Instead, hold everyone who holds a stake responsible, down to everyone with a 401k with 3 shares in the company for major violations.

          See how quickly the shareholders vote to have better transparency.

          • burntbacon@discuss.tchncs.de
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            2 days ago

            While an attractive pitch, remember that what’s going to fuck over the working class are the laws intended to attack the assholes at the top. Which group do you think will have the means to defend themselves in court, has the power to make legislative moves, and would benefit from having another tool to fuck their slaves with?

            • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 day ago

              Class action criminal suits then.

              Prosecute everyone who owns even a single share in the company and if the working class guy goes to jail, so does the wealthy guy, no exceptions. But by share of ownership so whoever owns most, gets the most jailtime.

              Offshore shareholders can just get all their assets in the country seized.

            • Jarix@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 day ago

              And those are actions are what really needs to be curtailed.

              Personally I think all lawyer fees should be paid by an entirely new (corporate) tax unless you are a small business with revenue less than a reasonable amount (absolutely not more than 100000 per employee and probably not even that much)