If you’re ever involved in a collision with your Tesla, there’s a good chance you can retrieve dashcam footage of the incident—provided the USB drive and glovebox survive. However, sometimes they don’t, and even dashcam footage may not be sufficient.
In such cases, you can request a full recording from Tesla, along with a detailed data report showing comprehensive information about your vehicle’s performance during the collision. Shortly after any impact, your Tesla automatically uploads its crash log and related data to Tesla’s servers when possible, even using the low-voltage battery if the high-voltage pyro fuses are triggered.
Hopefully, you’ll never need this, but here’s how to request a Tesla Vehicle Data Report and what you can expect in the report.
How to Request a Report
Tesla has a simple, automated process for owners to request a Vehicle Data Report. To do so, simply go to Tesla’s Data Association Page and log into your Tesla Account.
From there, you’ll see a form that contains several options. Under “Regarding,” you’ll choose “Data Privacy Request,” and in the next selection, choose “Obtain a Copy of My Data.”
Tesla will then ask you to choose a vehicle that’s attached to your account and a range of dates for which you want data.
Tesla will provide details for the whole date range you specify, so it’s best to keep it small. Once you hit Submit, Tesla will start processing the request. Collision data is kept for an extended period of time, enabling people to go back and find data as required.
The summary page for the Vehicle Data Report
@bilalsattar on X
Within 30 days, and often much sooner, Tesla should e-mail you back with the report in PDF format and a CSV sheet containing all the raw information related to the request. This information is available for any country in which Tesla sells cars. If your country is outside of Tesla’s regular sales zones, you can try reaching out anyway, but we’re not sure if they will retain your data or not.
Tesla can also send you footage and data even if the incident wasn’t recorded as a collision – they’ll send you whatever is available – for any specific timeline you request.
Tesla Vehicle Data Report
The report is several pages long and comes in a nicely formatted PDF package. It breaks down the incident into various sections that help highlight what happened during the event. The first page summarizes the incident by highlighting key events and metrics like Autopilot use and speed.
Summary & Event Information
The Summary and Event Information sections are on the left side of the first page. The summary section is a text version of what happened during the event, reporting the time of the incident, speed, and whether seat belts were used, among other details.
The event information section includes some high-level information, such as the location of the incident, whether dashcam recordings are available, and the date and time.
Driver Log Data Overview
The Driver Log Data Overview section focuses on a few Tesla features and shows whether they were enabled at the five-second mark before the incident, one second before the incident occurred, or at the time of the incident. Tesla will show whether Autosteer / FSD, Driver Monitoring, Cruise Control, and Manual Brakes were used at all of these points. They will also show the status of the driver’s seat belt. Later in the report, Tesla will show graphs for each of these features so that you can see if they changed over the course of the incident.
Speed and Collision
The Vehicle Data Report's formatting
@bilalsattar on X
The Speed and Collision section shows a timeline-based graph of the vehicle’s speed at the time of collision, four seconds before the collision, and four seconds after. The vertical line on the graph represents the collision, giving you a better understanding of what happened before and after the incident. However, in the following pages of the report, Tesla provides numerous time-based graphs that highlight many other metrics, including brake pedal use, accelerator, steering wheel torque and more.
Area of Detected Impact
This area of the report shows the vehicle from the top-down view and which areas detected an impact.
Time-Based Graphs
The rest of the report includes detailed graphs showing various vehicle metrics before, during, and after the incident.
Some of these graphs include the vehicle’s speed, steering wheel torque, steering wheel angle (how much the wheel was being turned and in which direction), accelerator and brake pedal usage, and pressure of the brake master cylinder. Tesla will even show whether any doors were opened during the seconds leading up to or following the incident.
If Tesla has a video of the incident, that will also be provided as a link for you to download. All the other information - the charts and graphs - raw information is also provided in a CSV file, which you can open in software like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets.
Not a Tesla App
To wrap up, Tesla is currently the only car manufacturer in the world that can provide this information to its customers at the drop of a hat. This information is immensely valuable, and it could be the difference between someone paying an insurance claim or being charged with a crime.
Tesla produces some of the safest vehicles on the planet, and their commitment to safety and reporting is spectacular. We’re happy to see Tesla continue to take steps to better help their customers.
Thanks to Bilal Sattar for sharing his report. We hope you never need to use this, but it’s good to know that it’s available.
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Tesla’s Cybertruck has officially earned a 5-Star Safety Rating from the NHTSA—an impressive achievement given the vehicle’s design. The achievement demonstrates Tesla’s engineering prowess. As one engineer points out, it wasn’t an easy feat.
Interestingly, the NHTSA only recently disclosed the results, despite the crash tests being completed a while ago. According to Lars Moravy, Tesla’s VP of Vehicle Engineering, the team had been aware of the 5-star rating for quite some time. While the reason for the delay remains unclear, now that the results are public, Tesla’s engineers can finally share how they achieved the rating.
Crumple Zones
Wes Morril, the Cybertruck’s Lead Engineer, wrote about the crash test video on X recently, addressing the claims that the Cybertruck doesn’t have a crumple zone. He also posted a side-by-side video (below) of the engineering analysis and the crash test itself.
Engineered Crash Safety
There’s a lot of engineering precision at play when a Cybertruck is involved in a crash. Unlike traditional crash structures that rely on crash cans and collapse points, the Cybertruck’s front gigacasting is designed to absorb and redirect impact forces in a highly controlled manner.
It all starts with the bumper beam, which crushes within the first few milliseconds of a high-speed impact. At the same time, the vehicle’s sensors rapidly analyze the crash dynamics and determine the optimal deployment of safety restraints, including airbags and seat belt pre-tensioners. These split-second actions are crucial in keeping occupants safe.
As the crash progresses, the vehicle’s structure deforms in a carefully engineered sequence. The drive unit cradle bends, directing the solid drive unit downward and out of the way, allowing the gigacasting to begin absorbing impact forces.
The casting crushes cell by cell, methodically dissipating energy in a controlled manner. This gradual deceleration reduces the g-forces transferred to occupants, making the crash much less severe. As the gigacast begins crushing, the safety restraints are deployed.
As Wes points out in his post - you can see how accurate the virtual analysis and modeling were. The video shows the simulated crash side by side with the real-life crash test and they’re almost identical. All that virtual testing helps provide feedback into the loop to design a better and safer system - one that is uniquely different than any other vehicle on the road.
All the armchair experts claimed the Cybertruck has no crumple zone and I get it, the proportions seem impossible. It was a tough one and there is a lot of engineering that went into it. Let me break it down for you:
Tesla has pioneered the use of single-piece castings for the front and rear sections of their vehicles, thanks to its innovative Gigapress process. Many automakers are now following suit, as this approach allows the crash structure to be integrated directly into the casting.
This makes the castings not only safer but also easier to manufacture in a single step, reducing costs and improving repairability. For example, replacing the entire rear frame of a Cybertruck is estimated to cost under $10,000 USD, with most of the expense coming from labor, according to estimates shared on X after high-speed rear collisions.
These insights come from Sandy Munro’s interview (posted below) with Lars Moravy, Tesla’s VP of Vehicle Engineering, highlighting how these advancements contribute to the improvements in Tesla’s latest vehicles, including the New Model Y.
However, with the new Model Y, Tesla has decided to go a different route and eliminated the front gigacast.
No Front Casting
Tesla’s factories aren’t equipped to produce both front and rear castings for the Model Y. Only Giga Texas and Giga Berlin used structural battery packs, but these were quickly phased out due to the underwhelming performance of the first-generation 4680 battery.
Tesla has gone back to building a common body across the globe, increasing part interchangeability and reducing supply chain complexity across the four factories that produce the Model Y. They’ve instead improved and reduced the number of unique parts up front to help simplify assembly and repair.
There is still potential for Tesla to switch back to using a front and rear casting - especially with their innovative unboxed assembly method. However, that will also require Tesla to begin using a structural battery pack again, which could potentially happen in the future with new battery technology.
Rear Casting Improvements
The rear casting has been completely redesigned, shedding 7 kg (15.4 lbs) and cutting machining time in half. Originally weighing around 67 kg (147 lbs), the new casting is now approximately 60 kg (132 lbs).
This 15% weight reduction improves both vehicle dynamics and range while also increasing the rear structure’s stiffness, reducing body flex during maneuvers.
Tesla leveraged its in-house fluid dynamics software to optimize the design, resulting in castings that resemble organic structures in some areas and flowing river patterns in others. Additionally, manufacturing efficiency has dramatically improved—the casting process, which originally took 180 seconds per part, has been reduced to just 75 seconds, a nearly 60% time reduction per unit.
Advancements in die-casting machines and cooling systems have allowed @Tesla to dramatically reduce cycle times and improve dimensional stability. pic.twitter.com/WB5ji67rvV
Tesla’s new casting method incorporates conformal cooling, which cools the die directly within the gigapress. Tesla has been refining the die-casting machines and collaborating with manufacturers to improve the gigapress process.
In 2023, Tesla patented a thermal control unit for the casting process. This system uses real-time temperature analysis and precise mixing of metal streams to optimize casting quality. SETI Park, which covers Tesla’s manufacturing patents on X, offers a great series for those interested in learning more.
The new system allows Tesla to control the flow of cooling liquid, precisely directing water to different parts of the die, cooling them at varying rates. This enables faster material flow and quicker cooling, improving both dimensional stability and the speed of removing the part from the press for the next stage.
With these new process improvements, Tesla now rolls out a new Model Y at Giga Berlin, Giga Texas, and Fremont every 43 seconds—an astounding achievement in auto manufacturing. Meanwhile, Giga Shanghai operates two Model Y lines, delivering a completed vehicle every 35 seconds.