The Horrifying Revelations in The Tesla Files
The Tesla company is shrouded in secrecy when it comes to the safety records of its cars. Despite numerous attempts to release information on crash records, the company has refused to comply. However, a whistleblower has leaked internal documents known as "The Tesla Files," revealing disturbing details about the crashes involving Teslas and how this information is being suppressed.
The files reveal that Tesla collects vast amounts of real-time data from its cars all over the world, but this information is kept secret from regulators. When a car crashes, this data would be invaluable to investigators looking for the cause, but the company stonewalls, leaving victims and their families frustrated.
One of the most disturbing features revealed by The Tesla Files is that Tesla's autopilot system is not as advanced as Elon Musk claims. In fact, there are over 2,400 customer complaints about unintended acceleration and more than 1,500 braking issues. These include 139 cases of emergency braking without cause and 383 phantom braking events triggered by false collision warnings.
More than 1,000 crashes are documented in The Tesla Files, including a separate spreadsheet on driver-assistance incidents where customers raised safety concerns. This data includes over 3,000 entries, with the oldest date being 2015 and the most recent being March 2022.
The Tesla Files also reveal that many of these incidents occurred in the US, but there have been complaints from Europe and Asia as well. Customers described their cars suddenly accelerating or braking hard, with some escaping unscathed while others ended up in ditches, crashing into walls, or colliding with oncoming vehicles.
One customer reported that her car "lurches forward suddenly" after she made a right-hand exit, while another said, "My autopilot failed/malfunctioned this morning (car didn’t brake) and I almost rear-ended somebody at 65mph."
Braking for no reason caused just as much distress. One Tesla driver wrote, "Our car just stopped on the highway. That was terrifying." Another complained, "Frequent phantom braking on two-lane highways. Makes the autopilot almost unusable."
A study by the Netherlands Forensic Institute found that Tesla's data collection makes it possible to reconstruct every detail of a crash, including exactly when the driver opened a door and how hard they pressed the accelerator.
However, the company has been accused of withholding large volumes of data that might have proved useful in investigating these incidents. The NHTSA had previously flagged 16 cases where Tesla vehicles crashed into stationary emergency vehicles, with autopilot disengaging "less than one second before impact."
The YouTuber Mark Rober replicated this behaviour in an experiment on March 15, 2025, simulating a range of hazardous situations and showing that the Tesla performed significantly worse than a competing vehicle.