Tesla ordered to provide crash data in Chinese court ruling
A Beijing court ruled that Tesla must provide a vehicle owner with 30 minutes of complete pre-crash data from an accident in 2021. The ruling follows four years of dispute over whether the vehicle's brakes failed, with the owner previously convicted of defamation in a separate case.
What happened
In February 2021, a vehicle owner's father experienced a rear-end collision in a Tesla vehicle. The traffic police determined that the father bore full responsibility for the accident, but the family claimed the vehicle's brakes failed.
The vehicle owner sought complete driving data from the preceding accident, which Tesla repeatedly refused to provide. In April 2021, the owner protested at the Shanghai Auto Show with claims of brake failure, leading to administrative detention.
Reported impact
The family alleged a traffic accident occurred due to brake failure, though traffic authorities attributed fault to the driver.
Index analysis
On 16 September 2025, the Beijing Daxing District People's Court ruled that Tesla, as a business operator, must safeguard consumer rights to information and ordered the company to provide 30 minutes of complete driving data preceding the accident.
The court recognized that Tesla had violated a 2021 national market regulator order by providing incomplete data, according to the vehicle owner's statement in court proceedings.
Governance controls
The vehicle owner pursued litigation to obtain the vehicle's driving data after years of Tesla's refusal, resulting in judicial intervention to enforce consumer rights.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.