Yes, that’s true. I was more thinking about the general research they were doing into establishing what data various Tesla models record. i.e. purchase a vehicl

Yes, that’s true. I was more thinking about the general research they were doing into establishing what data various Tesla models record. i.e. purchase a vehicle, drive it around (perhaps crash it if the research grant can stretch to that), submit a SAR. Any discrepancy between what personal data Tesla provide and what they found when they decrypted it themselves feels like the main story here to me.