Lawsuit: Tesla Workers Spied on Customers Using Vehicle Cameras

A lawsuit has been filed against Tesla following recent reports that Tesla workers were sharing images and videos collected from vehicle cameras. According to reports, employees shared clips of crashes, intimate sexual situations, and other content recorded from cameras in customers’ vehicles without their knowledge and consent.

Breitbart News previously reported that former Tesla workers made shocking allegations against their former employer 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.

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.”

Now, Reuters reports that a lawsuit has been filed against the company. Tesla owner Henry Yeh, who is based in California, has filed a potential class action lawsuit against the maker of electric vehicles, alleging that it has violated the privacy of its clients.

“Like anyone would be, Mr. Yeh was outraged at the idea that Tesla’s cameras can be used to violate his family’s privacy, which the California Constitution scrupulously protects,” said Jack Fitzgerald, an attorney representing Yeh, in a statement to Reuters. “Tesla needs to be held accountable for these invasions and for misrepresenting its lax privacy practices to him and other Tesla owners.”

Tesla employees allegedly had access to these photos and videos for their “tasteless and tortious entertainment” and the “humiliation of those surreptitiously recorded,” according to the lawsuit. According to the complaint, Tesla’s actions have been “particularly egregious” and “highly offensive.”

Yeh’s complaint was submitted on behalf of himself, other members of the same class in a similar situation, and members of the general public, including anyone who has recently owned or leased a Tesla. The lawsuit cited a former Tesla employee who claimed that some employees could see customers “doing laundry and really intimate things. We could see their kids.”

“Indeed, parents’ interest in their children’s privacy is one of the most fundamental liberty interests society recognizes,” the lawsuit stated.

Read more Reuters here.

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