‘Tesla data relevant for traffic accident research’

The NFI indicates that these data can provide insight into the circumstances of a traffic accident and in that sense are also legally interesting: “These data contain a wealth of information for forensic researchers and analysts of traffic accidents and can help with a criminal investigation after a fatal accident. traffic accident or an accident with injury,” says Francis Hoogendijk, digital researcher at the NFI. The researchers have read and translated the coded driving data that Tesla stores. They discovered that the car manufacturer collects information about the driving speed, the position of the accelerator pedal, the steering wheel angle, the brake operation and the operation of so-called driver assistance systems, such as the autopilot. Tesla uses that data itself for the further development of its cars, but also to solve malfunctions.

What the NFI achieves, among other things, with the research into which data is stored, is that people can ask Tesla for specific data in a more targeted way. Although Tesla provides the data if the court or the Public Prosecution Service requests it in a criminal investigation, the car brand only provides the requested data for a specific time frame. “You can’t progress what you don’t know, so it’s useful that we now know what information is stored,” says Hoogendijk. According to the researcher, the more targeted retrieval of certain data enables a more detailed investigation, for example into the role of the autopilot in an accident.

Tesla is of course not the only car manufacturer that collects data with cars. More and more modern cars register what they do or what happens, like airplanes have done for decades with the ‘black box’. In this light, Hoogendijk hopes that international legislation and regulations will be introduced that will allow car manufacturers to be more transparent about which data is stored. “It would be good if car brands themselves made this public in the future.”