A California judge ruled that Tesla’s claims on its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving features are deceptive enough for a license suspension. If the company doesn’t take appropriate action within 90 days, the judge recommended a 30-day suspension of Tesla’s sale and manufacturing license in the state.
Tesla is pretty mad about it, and Elon Musk fans jumped to blame the wrong guy.
Tesla Autopilot deceives California consumers
According to a legal filing by the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), an administrative law judge agreed with the agency that Tesla deceived its consumers by calling some of its vehicles “Full Self-Driving” and its software “Autopilot.”
The DMV alleges that these cars do not fully drive themselves and instead require constant human supervision.
“A reasonable consumer likely would believe that a vehicle with Full Self-Driving Capability can travel safely without a human driver’s constant, undivided attention,” the judge wrote. “This belief is wrong—both as a technological matter and as a legal matter—which makes the name Full Self-Driving Capability misleading.”
Misleading consumers like this violates California’s civil and vehicle codes.
The ruling could have a serious impact on Tesla’s sales numbers, which have already struggled in recent years, especially after the whole DOGE thing. California is a massive market for electric vehicles, representing 10 percent of the company’s total U.S. sales.
DMV director Steve Gordon, however, believes that Musk won’t have any trouble complying with the order before the 90-day deadline.
“Tesla can take simple steps to pause this decision and permanently resolve this issue—steps autonomous vehicle companies and other automakers have been able to achieve in California’s nation-leading and supportive innovation marketplace,” he said in a statement.
“I’m still waiting for ‘autopilot’ 10 years later”
Tesla North America issued a predictable response to the ruling by denying that there’s a problem in both tweets and statements to various news outlets. It may have even implied that it will not comply with a license suspension, should it come to that.
“This was a ‘consumer protection’ order about the use of the term ‘Autopilot’ in a case where not one single customer came forward to say there’s a problem,” its account tweeted on Tuesday.
“Sales in California will continue uninterrupted.”
Bold to claim that no one has complained about these features, and Tesla did nothing to back that up. Meanwhile, customers came forward in the comments to say there’s a problem.
“As a customer I’d like some $ since I’m still waiting for ‘autopilot’ 10 years later,” said @ranman. “Just put me in some working hardware at least and I’d be happy. So here is a customer coming forward.”
At the same time, popular accounts began to point the finger at California Governor Gavin Newsom because this happened in California. User @SpencerHakimian wrote, “Gavin Newsom ATTACKS Elon Musk,” and Newsom’s press account set the record straight.
“FALSE!” declared @GovPressOffice.
“This was an agency decision made independently from the Governor (who was not involved) following an order from an administrative law judge.”
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