The regulatory bodies in the United States have spent the past several years arguing over Tesla’s use of the terms Autopilot and Full Self-Driving to denote electronic assistance systems incapable of fully replacing the driver. The controversy has finally borne fruit in California, where the EV maker now has 60 calendar days to eliminate all “false and misleading” advertising claims.
The local judge ruled that the company deliberately disinformed drivers by lulling them into an illusion of safe unattended driving. Tesla defendants responded by pointing out that the company explained the workings of Autopilot and FSD in great detail in manuals and other materials, urging drivers to keep their hands on the wheel at all times. These arguments were all discarded as insufficient.
Tesla now has two months to fix its promotional materials, printed manuals and digital interfaces. The automaker assures us that work is already underway and no sale disruptions are to be expected.
While some may be tempted to discard these litigations as “arguing semantics”, Tesla has incurred substantial losses over its Autopilot tech. An earlier fatal crash involving FSD culminated in the company being found partially guilty and liable $240,000,000 in damages.
