In May 2020, San Francisco police Sergeant David Radford contacted Tesla with a request related to a case: Could the automaker provide data on an alleged stalker's remote access to a vehicle? A woman had come to the station, visibly shaken, according to a police report, and told police that her abusive husband was violating a restraining order by stalking and harassing her with the technology in their 2016 Tesla Model X. This SUV allows owners to track its location and control other features through a smartphone app, and the woman had discovered a metal baseball bat in the back seat - the same bat that had been used to threaten her, as noted in the police report.Radford asked Tesla for data to assist the investigation, but the automaker's service manager replied that remote-access logs could only be retrieved within seven days of the events recorded, as noted in a lawsuit the woman later filed. Cases of technology-enabled stalking involving cars are increasingly being reported as automakers add ever-more-sophisticated features. Concerns over such abusive behavior using other devices such as phone spyware or tracking devices have prompted technology companies such as Google and Apple to add safeguards to their products. Reuters examined two cases of alleged stalking involving Tesla technology but was unable to determine the scope of such abuse. Tesla did not respond to requests for comment. In addition, Radford and the San Francisco Police Department declined to comment on the investigation.The Alliance for Automotive Innovation (AAI), a technology-focused trade group for automakers and suppliers, cited the potential for spousal violence as a reason not to require carmakers to release location or other personal data under a California privacy law. Meanwhile, General Motors offers a mobile system and Rivian is working on a function that allow drivers to mask their location, even if they are not the vehicle's owner or primary user. Rivian stated that users should have control over where that information goes. GM declined to comment on whether its technology had been used in any alleged domestic abuse cases.
In 2020, a woman from San Francisco brought a lawsuit against her husband in state Superior Court, alleging assault and sexual battery. Subsequently, Tesla was added as a defendant in the lawsuit, which claimed that the automaker was negligent in allowing her husband access to the car despite the restraining order against him. The court papers only identified her by her initials, as the woman had cited a risk of physical harm. Her husband was also referred to by his initials.
When reviewing court filings, police reports, depositions, company emails and other documents related to the case, Reuters found that the woman had requested to Tesla to disable her husband's access to the car in both writing and in person, beginning in 2018. She was informed that it was impossible to terminate her husband's connection to the car as his name was still associated with the vehicle's title as a co-owner alongside hers. Tesla eventually won the lawsuit as the plaintiff could not provide evidence of her husband utilizing the car's features to stalk her. The couple settled their legal dispute in 2023 without revealing the terms of the settlement. The restraining order against her husband remains in action, while he denied tracking or harassing his wife through the car's technology in his deposition.
Renée Izambard, in a separate case, stated that her then-spouse was monitoring her movements with the Tesla app after he made statements which implied he was aware of her whereabouts. She filed for a divorce in 2018, accusing her husband of years of physical and psychological abuse. Izambard claimed that her ex-spouse's tracking was "one part of a much wider pattern of coercive control." His representative and lawyer did not comment on the matter.
Unlike the San Francisco woman, Izambard had the capacity to alter the account settings on her own and disconnect the car from the internet. Tesla vehicles allow the primary account holder to grant or deny access to the car's features and settings for other drivers, which was something the plaintiff in the initial case argued should have been available for her and her husband as they were both co-owners of the vehicle.
Before the latest automotive features enabled stalking, abusers took advantage of other tech like tracking devices and smartphone features, according to Jeff Kaplan, a private investigator. Apple released the AirTag location-tracker in 2021, which quickly became a favorite tool of stalkers for concealing in cars or elsewhere. Apple and Google made a proposal to a tech-industry standards organization to create standardized technology which would alert people being tracked without their knowledge. Apple and Google are yet to comment on the matter. In response to written requests for information, Tesla stated that they do not have a companywide policy dealing with stalking allegations involving their vehicles' technology. Professor Catherine Crump of Berkeley Law School, who specializes in technology-related privacy issues and is a former advisor to the White House Domestic Policy Council, believes the problem of stalkers using location data was foreseeable and that it is "disappointing" that Tesla does not have better solutions to this.
The San Francisco woman and her husband bought a Tesla Model X in January 2016, with the husband listed as the administrator and the woman as an additional driver. After they separated in August 2018 -- following findings by a family law judge that the woman had suffered repeated physical abuse and sexual abuse (which the husband denied) -- she began to return to the car to find that its settings had been changed and its ability to charge had been turned off. Two letters to Tesla's legal department from anti-domestic abuse advocates on her behalf asked the company to preserve data logs and remove the husband's access, though Tesla denied receiving the letters. In seeking advice, a Tesla service center manager contacted deputy general counsel Ryan McCarthy, who said the woman would need to have her husband removed from the vehicle's title in order for the company to disable his account.
In its defense, Tesla argued that the woman had no proof that her husband used the car's technology to stalk her, and San Francisco Superior Court Judge Curtis Karnow agreed, stating that the consequences of imposing liability for car manufacturers would be broad and incalculable. In 2020, the woman was eventually allowed by a family court judge to sell the jointly owned Tesla.
If you or someone you know is facing domestic violence, don't hesitate to seek help. Call the National Domestic Violence hotline at (800) 799-SAFE (7233), or go to www.thehotline.org for more. States often have domestic violence hotlines as well.
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