Tesla to Fight California’s Claim It Overhypes Autopilot
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Tesla Inc. is set to face off with the California Department of Motor Vehicles over claims that the company has exaggerated the capabilities of its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving technology and misled consumers.
The stakes are high at a five-day hearing in Oakland starting July 21 because the regulator is seeking to suspend or revoke Tesla’s dealer license, which permits it to sell vehicles in the most populous state.
The hearing before an administrative agency judge comes as Elon Musk’s electric vehicle maker is in the middle of a jury trial in Miami over whether Autopilot is partly to blame for a 2019 collision involving a distracted Tesla Model S driver that killed a pedestrian. Tesla has denied wrongdoing in the Florida case and in the California proceeding.
The bicoastal scrutiny of how Tesla’s driver-assistance software is marketed and how well it performs poses significant risks for Musk, who has bet the company’s future on self-driving and is in the process of launching a long-promised robotaxi business. The world’s richest person has called Teslas the safest cars ever made.
Autopilot crashes have been investigated repeatedly by federal safety regulators, culminating in a 2023 recall of 2 millions cars after a finding that the driver-assistance program failed to ensure drivers stay attentive. Several lawsuits over fatal accidents are scheduled for trials in the coming year, which will keep a spotlight on safety issues.
The California regulator says Tesla violated state law by making “untrue or misleading” statements in 2021 and 2022 while advertising its vehicles with advanced driver-assistance systems, including describing the features as being “able to conduct short and long-distance trips with no action required in the driver’s seat.”
An amended complaint by the DMV filed in November 2023 said Tesla vehicles equipped with driver-assist technology “could not at the time of those advertisements, and cannot now, operate as autonomous vehicles.”
Tesla has argued in filings that the company’s remarks in dispute are protected free speech under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Lawyers for the company also say the marketing statements cited by the DMV have been taken out of context and that regulator is failing to consider Tesla’s warnings and disclosures about the systems.
“Tesla repeatedly and explicitly makes clear that its vehicles are not autonomous and require active driver supervision,” the company said in a February 2024 filing.
The automotive industry categorizes automation systems in vehicles from Level 0 to 5, based on what features are available. Level 0 features simply pass on information to the driver, like sounding a warning when you’re driving out of a traffic lane. Tesla’s Autopilot is classified as Level 2 because it requires constant driver input and supervision.
Representatives for the DMV and Tesla declined to comment ahead of the Oakland hearing.
Tesla’s marketing has come up during the Miami trial. Lawyers for the company maintained that remarks by Musk and Tesla about its vehicles being able to drive without human involvement are future-facing, and don’t reflect the current technology.
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Mary “Missy” Cummings, an engineering professor at George Mason University called by the plaintiffs as an expert witness on safety, told jurors that those kinds of statements can encourage driver “complacency” and instill a false understanding of what a vehicle is capable of doing. She said even calling the software Autopilot creates “a mismatch in the consumer’s head.”
“It engenders a lot more inappropriate confidence in the car, because autopilot is such a good technology in aviation,” said Cummings, who was one of the first female fighter pilots in the U.S. Navy. “Somehow, we feel like that is going to translate to a really effective tech in the car.”
The California DMV case is In the Matter of the First Amended Accusation Against: TESLA, INC, 21-02188, Department of Motor Vehicles, State of California.
