Tesla risks losing the license to sell cars in California, the motorization presents two exhibits
The California State DMV filed two complaints against Tesla. In the Autopilot viewfinder: “it’s not true autonomous driving”.
Autopilot got Tesla in trouble again . This time the accusations come from the California state DMV . According to the state agency, Tesla exaggerated the qualities of Autopilot and the Full Self-Driving package, effectively misleading consumers – and, therefore, putting their safety at risk.
The agency filed two complaints, both accusing Tesla of formulating its marketing proposals in a “misleading or mendacious” way. In short, the accusation is of misleading advertising . First of all, the motorization points the finger at the branding choices: Full Self-Driving and Autopilot are two names that suggest that Tesla cars are equipped with complete autonomous driving technology, which is not true. Autopilot, even if equipped with the FSD package, is at most an advanced ADAS, or what can be called a Level 2 autonomous driving.
After all, the driver must keep his hands on the steering wheel when the function is activated, and must also be ready to regain control of the vehicle at any time.
The agency also mentions several phrases contained in Tesla’s promotional material. For example: “Autopilot is designed to support short and long distance journeys, without requiring action by the person sitting in the driver’s seat”. But also: “Autopilot is able to navigate within urban roads, complex intersections and freeways”.
Ambiguous phrases, which reinforce the idea that the cars produced by Tesla are able to function as authentic self-driving cars. “It wasn’t true at the time of those advertisements and it still isn’t true now,” thunders the DMV.
The consequences of the complaint filed by the DMV could be extremely serious: Tesla risks losing its license to sell its vehicles in California. Tesla has 15 days to respond to the agency’s complaint.
