The Guardian newspaper released an extract of the new book by Dr. Sonke Iwersen and Michael Verfurden called 'The Tesla Files'. In it, it documents cases where Tesla's haven't responded as drivers expected, which have in some cases, fatal consequences.

In the extract there are some really poignant points for those involved in vehicle forensics and sudden unintended accelerations.
1. There is clearly data being recorded by vehicles which is available to manufacturers, who are for whatever reason, failing to disclose it to the relevant authorities,
2. Relevant authorities may not know the breadth of data that exists, either on the vehicle or recorded by the manufacturers servers,
3. The mechanism by which a request can be made to a manufacturer is either ineffective resulting in only selected data being returned or non-existent resulting in "radio silence".

Software is increasingly finding its way into our cars in ways we may not have truly imagined a decade ago and the discussion about when software is "ready" for full deployment is always a subjective one, but the systemtic failure to disclose data severely limits what lessons can be learned, by drivers, authorities and car manufacturers.

Although in this article Tesla is in the spotlight, this is not a problem unique to them. Most modern vehicles are connected and have the means to send and receive data, this is after all how many vehicles update their own software.

If we are to increase the amount of software in vehicles, eventually leading to fully autonomous vehicles, we also need a system in place to properly investigate incidents.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jul/05/the-vehicle-suddenly-accelerated-with-our-baby-in-it-the-terrifying-truth-about-why-teslas-cars-keep-crashing