Lukasz Krupski comes from Poland, but in 2018 he got a job as a car mechanic at Tesla in Drammen. His job was to prepare cars for Norwegian consumers.
He was a huge fan of Tesla CEO Elon Musk and was very excited to let him work at the company. One of the attractive things was the ability to be part of the “green transition”.
“I felt as though Mr. Musk was a very good leader,” Krupsky says.
Later, something happened that made him think about his relationship with the car giant, which for years had been among the best-selling cars in Norway.
In 2023, Tesla returned to first place in new cars sold in Norway.
Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters
The Tesla caught fire
At the end of March 2019, the Tesla Model 3 has just arrived in Norway. But at the fairgrounds in Lillestrom, things went wrong.
One of the new cars that was connected to the emergency starter caught fire. Behind some nearby curtains there were several customers. Cropsey stood just a meter away, reached into the burning car and unplugged the faulty charger.
– I suffered burns and blisters on the inside of my hand, but fortunately I did not suffer permanent damage.
Krupski’s burned hand after he pulled out a burning charging cable to prevent a larger fire when a Tesla Model 3 caught fire.
Image: private
Krupski became the hero of the day.
The following Monday, he surprisingly received a personal email from Elon Musk, thanking Krupski for “saving the day.”
– He says he felt very good.
This thank you note was sent to Krupski via email from Tesla’s president after the accident in Lillestrom.
Image: screenshot
Musk wrote that he would like to hear what Krupski thinks Tesla can improve. There were several things Krupski believed the company could improve when it came to fire safety.
But when he started recording, Musk quickly calmed down.
Cropsey has seen the shift from being the great hero to being viewed as an inside threat.
– The manager asked me to stop sending emails to Musk. And that I had to deal with him before I sent any more emails.
Two weeks later, he was told that the company would terminate his employment. Krupski contacted a lawyer and was allowed to keep his job. It will turn out that the problems have only just begun.
Krupski was assigned to work alone and at the same time was subjected to what he himself believed were unjustified accusations.
The company is said to have claimed, among other things, that Krupski should have tried to provoke his dismissal, in order to obtain NOK 100,000. They also claimed that he deliberately tried to run over people.
The auto mechanic was on sick leave for a while, but eventually came back.
NRK tried to get Tesla to respond to the accusations, but it did not respond to our inquiries.
“Tesla files”
Krupski says he tried to report security problems internally within the organization, but claims he was not listened to.
He continued to work for the company, but the story does not end there. At the end of 2021, he realized that as an ordinary service technician, he had access to vast amounts of data about the company.
It was about everything from contractual relationships to sensitive personal data. And also about Elon Musk personally.
At first he was upset by the lack of privacy. That he, as an ordinary auto mechanic at the company, had such access to the data. Eventually he became preoccupied with other things in the material. He saw that there were many complaints from connected Tesla owners who used the car’s self-driving features.
– There were a lot of complaints about “phantom braking” and unintended acceleration.
Tesla owners who used the car’s Autopilot function noticed that the car suddenly stopped or accelerated for no reason. And the company often solves problems without being honest with customers.
The Tesla Model 3 has technology that allows it to drive itself, but the driver sometimes has to touch the steering wheel.
Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters
With his recent experience of how things would go if he reported internally, Krupski chose this time to notify several U.S. public agencies about what he saw. He also informed the Data Protection Authority of Norway.
Meanwhile, Telsa chose to fire its Polish service technician. His last day with the company was March 31, 2022.
In addition to notifying the authorities, Krupski contacted German newspaper Handelsblatt and shared 100GB of Tesla data with them. After working with the data for half a year, in May of this year they published a big reveal under the headline “Tesla 100GB data files”.
Today’s business He wrote about the leaks in November. Krupski was also recently interviewed by BBC.
– I feel deeply worried, Krupsky now tells NRK.
Tesla was very popular in Norway. Many people drive around in a Tesla. Is it dangerous?
– I feel like it is. It was hard for me to admit it because I loved my job and was loyal to the company.
In 2023, Tesla returned to first place in new cars sold in Norway.
Photograph: Noah Berger/AP
Many have suspected that Tesla’s self-driving car technology is not safe. In the United States, there are more police officers File a lawsuit against the car manufacturer, after a Tesla X with Autopilot crashed head-on into several parked emergency vehicles. US authorities are still investigating many of these clashes.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk spoke warmly about the company’s self-driving technology. He said this last Saturday at the latest on X/Twitter:
Tesla has the best real-world AI.
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This week, Cropsey received the International Freedom of Expression Award, 2023 Whistleblowing Scheme AwardsFor what he did.
They assert in their justification that Krupski exposed security failures at Telsa, in addition to that they have an institutional culture that tries to keep this away from the public.
Krupski still lives in Norway. Tesla has threatened to take legal action against his former service technician, but he doesn’t know if anything will be achieved as a result.
NRK attempted to contact the law firm representing Tesla in the lawsuit, without getting a response.
– Do you regret informing yourself about what is happening at Tesla?
– We’ll see, concludes Krupsky.
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