As the FBI and Las Vegas police investigate whether the detonation of Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas was a terrorist attack, investigators have been aided by the automaker and its vast trove of data about its cars and their drivers.
Video and data from the Tesla charging network allowed investigators to quickly track where an when the truck — rented on the Toro car sharing app — had been from the time its suspected driver rented it in Denver Saturday until it became visible on the traffic cameras and private surveillance feeds that blanket Sin City.
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Just hours after the New Year's Day explosion, Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill was able to confidently speak in detail about the vehicle's movements.
"What I can tell you is we do know the truck was rented in Colorado. We were able to trace that truck through the Tesla charging stations," he said Wednesday.
That's a huge benefit for investigators, former prosecutor John Bandler told Scripps News.
"So if we think about more old fashioned crimes with gasoline automobiles, we might look to see where someone gassed up their vehicle, because we know those cars need gasoline," Bandler said. "But it's harder to figure that out because you have to hope that they paid for it with a credit card or debit card, and that those records you can obtain. That's a multi step process."
"Here with the Tesla, you know, it needs to be charged at a Tesla station," he added. "You go to Tesla and you ask them, 'can you tell us everything you can about this car? When was it charged? When was it driven? Where was it driven?' Because Tesla knows where their cars are," he said.
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An expert on cybercrime and online law, Bandler said requests for digital data to phone companies, device makers, social media platforms and — yes — car companies are now an important first step for investigators in major cases.
"There's more data being created, collected and stored now than ever before," he said. "That means law enforcement, in theory, can access more data than they ever could before. I mean, the amount of data being collected is astronomical."
However, despite the benefits to law enforcement, Bandler said that a broader question remains about whether data is being collected, stored and used in a way that respects and protects people's privacy.
"I think for people committing crimes or intending to commit crimes, it would be good if they knew that evidence is being created all the time, and we want to hope that law enforcement is going to get that evidence," Bandler said. "For law abiding citizens and residents, we have legitimate concerns about our privacy and whether and how private companies are using it and accessing it, whether and how government might access it for whatever reason. So for law abiding citizens, privacy is a legitimate concern. We want to hope that organizations are complying with the privacy policy they post."
