Smile for the Camera: Tesla Employees Accused of Sharing Intimate Videos from Customers’ Vehicles

Former Tesla employees are claiming that videos of naked customers and other intimate moments captured within vehicles and footage from inside Elon Musk’s garage were shared among staff at the electric car company. One former employer explained, “I always joked that I would never buy a Tesla after seeing how they treated some of these people.”

The Telegraph reports that former Tesla workers have made shocking allegations against their former company and coworkers, alleging that staff members shared intimate customer videos and even recorded video from inside Elon Musk’s garage using cameras installed in the company’s vehicles. Ex-employees claim that between 2019 and 2020, private sexual moments and mishaps spread “like wildfire” throughout Tesla’s San Mateo, California office.

Seven former employees told Reuters that Tesla’s software could reveal the location of the recordings, potentially revealing Tesla owners’ homes, despite Tesla’s assurances on its website that its vehicle cameras were “designed from the ground up to protect your privacy.” One ex-employee said, “We could see inside people’s garages and their private properties.”

Various types of content were shown in the shared videos, ranging from “scandalous stuff,” such as “scenes of intimacy” and “certain sexual wellness items,” to accidents, like a car slamming into a child at a high speed. Even Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s garage was not immune, as some staff members discovered a video of a rare submersible car he had bought in 2013 for about $968,000: a white Lotus Esprit sub known as “Wet Nellie.”

One former picture editor described the culture surrounding sharing such videos, saying, “If you saw something cool that would get a reaction, you post it, right, and then later, on break, people would come up to you and say, ‘Oh, I saw what you posted. That was funny.'” They added that those who shared “funny items” and gained notoriety for being amusing were promoted to lead positions.

The revelations have alarmed ex-employees, with one stating, “It was a breach of privacy, to be honest. And I always joked that I would never buy a Tesla after seeing how they treated some of these people.” In response to concerns about their cameras, Elon Musk said in a virtual talk at a Chinese forum in 2021 that the company would “get shut down” if Tesla cars were used to “spy in China or anywhere.”

Tesla hasn’t responded to these accusations as of yet.

Read more at the Telegraph here.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan