Tesla sued over claims employees used car cameras to spy on drivers

Tesla Model 3 shown using Autopilot beta software for full self-driving (FSD). Credit: Mike Blake/Reuters

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of injured drivers Henry Ye, who owns a Model Y car, is seeking financial compensation and legal fees. It was filed on Friday, shortly after the image-sharing news broke.

It alleges that image collection, which can only be stopped by finding a mechanic to deactivate the camera, violates California privacy laws.< /p

“The plaintiff and members of the class have reasonable expectations for privacy in their homes and in their vehicles as a general rule,” it states.

“The expectation of privacy in their homes is inherent. Their expectation of privacy in their vehicles stems from Tesla's clearly articulated policy that the company will not abuse customer videos or images in their vehicles.

Tesla's interference by viewing and sharing customer videos and images and their actions, even in their own homes, are extremely offensive to a reasonable person.”

Tesla says the images collected by its electric vehicles «remain anonymous,» but former employees said they contain location data, making this potentially possible. to identify faces captured by the camera.

Among the images reportedly shared by Tesla employees was the inside of Musk's home, including footage of the Lotus Esprit submersible used by James Bond in the 1977 film The Spy Who Loved Me. Mr. Musk bought the car at an auction.

News of the lawsuit broke as it emerged that the former Twitter boss fired by Mr. Musk was suing the social network for non-payment of his legal bills. .

Parag Agrawal, who ran Twitter from November 2021 to October 2022, was fired and kicked out of Twitter's San Francisco headquarters the same day Musk completed his $44 billion takeover ( £35.4 billion).

Along with other executives, his job was fired «for good reason» after Musk accused them of misleading him and investors about the number of fake user accounts on the social media platform.

But along with former General Counsel Vijay Gadde and former CFO Ned Segal, Mr. Agrawal is now suing the company for failing to cover about $1 million in personal legal fees as it fights investigations by US authorities.

The claim of Mr. Agrawal. The lawsuit alleges that Twitter refused to honor its «obligations» despite executives suffering «significant» legal fees related to investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to documents filed in a Delaware court.< /p>

Twitter also ceased to be an independent company following a merger with shell firm X-Corp, according to a separate lawsuit filed against the social networking site and its former chief executive, Jack Dorsey.

It's not clear what's wrong . change funds for Twitter, which now «no longer exists,» according to documents filed in a California court last year.

Mr Musk previously suggested that the Twitter purchase would be an «accelerator» for building X, which he called «the app for everything.» Musk wrote about the move on Tuesday with a single «X».

Twitter and Tesla did not respond to requests for comment on the respective lawsuits.