Tesla is setting up a database for vehicle owners in China that would give them access to info generated by their electric vehicles, following mounting criticism in the country. — Bloomberg
Tesla Inc. will develop a database that vehicle owners in China can use to access information generated by their electric cars.
The Palo Alto, California-based company plans to have the database up and running by later this year, according to a statement Thursday that didn’t provide any other detail including whether the data will be available for free or what sort of driving details will be uploaded.
Tesla found itself in the headlines for all the wrong reasons last month in China after a highly public protest at the Shanghai Auto Show went viral. A customer who claimed the brakes failed in her Tesla, almost killing her father who was driving at the time, jumped on top of a display car, prompting a deeper investigation by a local market regulator and heated criticism of Tesla’s customer service.
Days after the embarrassing event, Tesla released the data logs of the car in question. It had held out for several months but acquiesced after the regulator in Zhengzhou, Henan, where the crash occurred, ordered Tesla’s branch there to unconditionally provide the woman with complete driving data for the 30 minutes before the incident.
The data showed that the Model 3 was traveling at 118.5km an hour (74 miles per hour) just before impact and slowed to around 48.5km an hour after the brakes were applied. The data also showed that the driver braked more than 40 times in the half-hour before the crash, and at multiple points the vehicle was traveling at more than 100km per hour.
In a separate development, the China Association of Automobile Automakers last month said it was developing a free platform that will allow any carmakers to upload and store data on autonomous driving. That platform is optional and automakers don’t have to participate. – Bloomberg
