Elon Musk is currently outraging the public, especially with his work in the administration of the new US president. But this is not the only controversy associated with his person. What are the so-called Tesla Files hiding?
Elon Reeve Musk is an entrepreneur and engineer of South African-Canadian-British descent. He founded the space company SpaceX and was behind the creation of the Tesla car company. He is considered by many to be a visionary, but this reputation began to crumble when he bought the social network Twitter, now X.
At the end of 2022, an unacceptable combination of media, business and later political power began . The reach of anti-Semitic, racist and conspiratorial posts on social network X increased rapidly. And Elon Musk has undoubtedly aided DonaldTrump’s rise to office in this controversial way.
And the controversy continues. In a speech after Trump’s inauguration, Musk raised his right hand, and he posted the video that recorded the speech himself on social networking site X. The gesture, reminiscent of a Nazi salute, certainly did not go unnoticed in the public sphere. Elon Musk has been the subject of intense media coverage for some time, but this is far from the only problematic moment in the American entrepreneur’s behaviour.
He is fond of using Platform X to explicitly attack his business or ideological contemporaries. Evidence of his problematic behaviour is mounting. Recent evidence is said to include leaked corporate files from a former Tesla employee.
━━ Elon Musk at the VivaTech 2023 meeting in Paris.
( Source: Frederic Legrand - COMEO / Shutterstock )
This is Lukasz Kupski, who has in the past pointed out the critical safety problems of Tesla cars or the company’s dismal working conditions. He managed to collect a total of 100 GB of internal data. The initial problem was the leak of sensitive information itself . The US carmaker did not adequately protect data on customers, employees and partners, which was immediately investigated by the data protection authority in the Netherlands, where Tesla has its European headquarters.
The second point of contention is the content of the documents. The so-called Tesla Files are said to contain 23,000 internal files with 2,400 reports of problems with the automatic acceleration, as well as information on 1,500 problems with the braking system, 139 complaints of unintentional emergency braking and 383 complaints about phantom stop situations due to false collision warnings.
These internal data revealed a characteristic pattern of Musk’s behavior of announcing grandiose plans and attempting to carry them out, regardless of their impact on specific individuals. The well-known innovator undoubtedly promotes unique technological solutions, but often does so at the expense of the truth. Kupski himself has complained of being harassed, facing threats, and eventually being fired when he pointed out serious safety issues at his workplace.
The documents also provided the source material for a documentary film of the same name. The film, which was officially presented in March 2025 at the Cph:dox international documentary festival in Copenhagen, aims not only to expose the situation at Tesla but also to question Musk’s political ambitions.
