Phone search after fatal crash defended

Query on deleting Tesla recordings may have been automated: Lawyer

An iPhone’s auto search feature could be why a fatal crash driver had the term “how to delete Tesla recordings” on his phone, his lawyer has told a court.

Saurbh Sharma has been on trial defending a charge of careless driving causing the death of young Auckland lawyer Shubham Kaur, known as Khushi, in a crash that stretched 100m and smashed through a power pole along Taupiri’s Dawson Rd on January 4, 2022.

Giving evidence in the Hamilton District Court on Thursday, Detective Constable Harjot Sandhu revealed that after the crash, Sharma’s phone was first used to search “how to delete Tesla recordings” in the Safari web browser.

Thirty-six seconds later he called 111, for zero seconds, then called his sister, and brother-in-law, who was a policeman.

In what were at times slightly tense exchanges between Sandhu and defence counsel Shafraz Khan, Khan put forward a possible explanation for the Tesla search — the result of the phone’s “auto-populate” function, when the phone automatically offers options when someone is typing into the search bar.

“It is entirely possible that the search that occurred was autopopulated,” Khan said, adding that all Sharma had to do was type the word “how to” and it could have resulted in the remaining words.

“Our phones do funny things these days in terms of what they suggest to us,” Khan said to a surprised Sandhu.

“I would find it a coincidence that before ringing 111 someone is going on Safari and just typing in ‘how to’ and it just picks up ‘delete Tesla recordings’,” Sandhu said. “I would find it strange.”

Khan explained that Tesla recordings weren’t the car’s data, but the vehicle’s dashcam recording.

Sharma didn’t have a Tesla app on his phone, and Khan quizzed Sandhu why police didn’t press Tesla for further data about his client’s vehicle.

“One of the detectives made the inquiries, they said there was nothing, no data,” Sandhu said.

Sharma’s police DVD interview played to the court indicated he’d been going “at least” 140km/h at the time of the crash, based on the damage to the car — described by one officer as being left a “metal carcass”.

In the interview, Sharma was asked what “would be the normal thing to do” after being involved in a crash.

“I think see if the person is okay first,” Sharma replied.

“Do you think before calling 111 a normal person would search how to delete Tesla recordings?”

“I don’t know,” Sharma said.

Asked what he knew about Teslas, he replied, “um, they’re good cars”.

He said the car’s software had just been updated and there was a “huge change to the system”.

Sandhu repeatedly asked Sharma about Kaur’s injuries during the interview, but all he could say was that she was unconscious and not responding to him.

Sandhu reminded him what he told an officer at the scene, “she’s dead, she’s dead”, and that she’d lost part of her skull.

“I don’t remember,” Sharma replied as he put his head in his hands.

Sandhu reminded him that he’d also rung his sister, brother-in-law and a friend straight after the crash. “I seriously don’t know,” he replied.

Asked why he texted a relative that the Tesla had turned him into a “rough driver”, and that he was now a “dangerous driver”, Sharma said he was joking.

As for the auto-drive function, Sharma said he’d tried it “but not too much”.

“Every now and then because I’m not really trusting the car to drive itself.”

Asked if he was using it on the day of the crash, he replied, “oh, no, no, no, no”.

Judge Raymond Marshall yesterday reserved his decision.