Tesla moves to block the city of Austin of the Robotaxi information liberation

Tesla is a public company that wishes to exploit autonomous systems in public streets and highways. He also intends to start a Robotaxi service on public roads in Austin, Texas, June 10. Even if the public is an involuntary (and often reluctant) participant in this experiences, Tesla fights with fierce to keep all the information about them. Recently, he asked a federal judge to prohibit the NHTSA from publishing data on accidents related to the use of complete driving and automatic pilot systems. In addition, he puts pressure on the city of Austin not to disclose information on the Robotaxi test which is only days.

Some would describe what Tesla does as chutzpahA Yiddish word derived from Hebrew which means “Audacity or daring.” But it also has a darker connotation. Fans of the godfather will remember the famous scene – and horrible – in which Don Corleone orders at the head of a famous racing horse – Khartoum – cut and placed at the foot of its owner’s bed. In legal circles, CHUTZPAH is sometimes described as murderous your parents, then you throw on the mercy of the court because you are an orphan.

Elon Musk often complains people who engage in “Lawfare”, but no one plays this game better than Musk himself. There are some who believe that his fervent support for the current president was partly motivated by a plan carefully calculated to prevent the federal authorities from restricting, or even prohibiting the autonomous driving technologies which he has promoted aggressively for a decade. Musk refuses to recognize obstacles. Her Modus OperationI have to beat his way forward by a pure force of will. Some see it as a virtue; Others see it as a character defect. It may be both.

What is always left to the side is that these autonomous systems involve Individuals, who are not informed that they are part of these experiences and have not had the opportunity to withdraw. Other companies use private facilities to test their autonomous systems; Tesla uses public roads. But it goes further. When something runs badly, Tesla rushes to draw a hollow of secret around its activities, which makes it difficult, if not impossible, citizens who are involuntarily affected to request compensation for the consequences.

Recently, Bloomberg released one Video of a Tesla y model Operating in complete self-limited mode which crashed into a car stopped on an Arizona road, killing one of the passengers. The video came from the dash dash of the car and was downloaded by a police officer from the Arizona State. Subsequently, the video was published following a request for public files. The chances that Tesla would have published this without a prescription video of the United States Supreme Court was practically zero.

Last February, Reuters Asked the City of Austin for information on the Robotaxi service, which Elon Musk said that would begin there in 2025. On April 1, the Public Information Manager of Austin Dan Davis said Reuters These “third parties” had asked the City to refuse the files to protect their “privacy interests”. On April 7, Austin officials asked the Texas Attorney General’s Office General, which was the final authority on public information disputes, for its opinion.

On April 16, a Tesla lawyer contacted the prosecutor’s office to oppose the publication of “confidential information, owners, owners and / or commercial secrets” contained in email between Tesla and Austin officials. He claimed to publish the documents to Reuters would reveal “Tesla’s deployment procedure, process, status and strategy” and “irreparably harm Tesla”. Talk about your lawyer!

The Robotaxi trial in Austin should start before the emission of the opinion of Texas AG. At that time, we know that the vehicles used will be geofized, which means that they will be software limited to certain streets of the city. But at that time, information on the streets will be used by autonomous cars has not been made public. If you were a resident of Austin, would you not want to know where cars without drivers on board would work? It is possible that a prudent person may want Avoid interacting With these horizontal elevators.

Tesla and secret

Tesla mania for secrecy is also exposed in Washington, dc. After Reuters (These annoying devils!) Asked the NHTSA for Tesla crash data, the company rushed to federal courts (more of the law!) To ask a judge to block the publication of this information because it could be used by competitors to assess its autonomous systems. According to Engadget,, Tesla maintains that the information is confidential. If it were to become public knowledge, others would be able to determine the effectiveness of each version of Tesla’s autonomous software and the number of accidents associated with each version.

Of course, there is a more frightening possibility. If the public members have discovered at what frequency of the Tesla autonomous driving technology is involved in accidents, it may tend to open them on Tesla autonomous driving systems. The elephant in the room here is that Musk has used its influence to bring the American transport service to restrict the declaration requirements of the cars used as Robotaxis by driving companies like Tesla and Waymo. These declaration requirements had been Formed last fall. If the government does not have information in the first place, there will be nothing to publish in boring press organizations like Reuters.

Noah Goodall, an independent researcher who studies autonomous vehicles, said Cable Changes may make foreigners more difficult to identify or understand models in the errors that autonomous vehicles make. However, he recognized that the public accident database has been difficult to work since its launch in 2021. “You get less reports now. From my point of view, more data is good,” he said.

Trade secrets

Trade secrets are protected by American law. These protections explain why hydraulic fracturing companies do not have to disclose which chemicals they add to hydraulic fracturing fluids that they deeply inject underground. If people living nearby fall ill and die, well, it is the price of energy domination. You cannot make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.

Elon’s mania for secrecy concerns many people. It is as if he knew he has something to hide, something he does not want the world to know. Is this reason sufficient to force information in the public domain? This is a simple question that will cause many different answers. We can’t wait to hear what our readers think about it.