April 3, 2018—When a Tesla Model X crashed into a highway barrier in California last month, data from the vehicle's computers was not easily accessible, reported Fortune.
The data stored on the Tesla is in a proprietary format that can only be accessed by the company. Similarly, the information the vehicles beam to Tesla computers on a regular basis can’t be obtained without the company’s cooperation, according to the report.
Unlike the information contained on an airplane’s crash-proof recorders—the so-called “black boxes” that capture flight data and sounds from the cockpit in an easy-access format—the National Transportation Safety Board needs the help of automakers such as Tesla to view the information from the growing number of autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles.
The tensions come as the NTSB has sought greater access to data from autonomous vehicles. Last year, as part of its findings in a separate fatal crash involving a Tesla, the NTSB called on highway regulators to create standards for data collection on vehicles with automated systems and to make it “readily available.”, reported Fortune.
