Tesla Odometers Could Be Overestimating Mileage By As Much As 117%: Lawsuit
Tesla, no stranger to lawsuits, has a brand new one to add to the list: A multiple-Tesla owner in Northern California is suing the automaker, claiming the odometers incorrectly measures milage using a faulty algorithm which ups the supposed miles driven from 15% to 117%. The lawsuit alleges Tesla does this to close out warranties early on their products. The lawsuit, however, stands on a filed patent which may or may not be in use in Tesla vehicles.
Tesla owner Nyree Hinton brought the case against Tesla forward. Here's what they're claiming, according to CarScoops:
The case was filed by Nyree Hinton, who says they bought a 2020 Tesla Model Y in December 2022 with 36,772 miles on it. Hinton states that from December 14, 2022, to February 6, 2023, they averaged 55.54 miles per day, but between March 26, 2023, and June 28, 2023, this spiked to 72.53 miles per day, just as the Model Y was approaching its warranty expiration. The owner estimates that the average mileage should have been roughly 20 miles fewer per day because of their consistent routine during this time.
In the instance of their Model Y, Hinton says they drove 6,086 miles but the Tesla recorded 13,228 miles. The lawsuit is based on a patent that Tesla filed for a seemingly tricky form of recording milage. The patent calls for a "miles-to-electrical energy conversion factor" that would take in factors like charging behavior and road conditions into the calculation of miles traveled instead of a direct recording of miles traveled. The lawsuit alleges Tesla is using this technology instead of mechanical or electrical systems that faithfully record miles traveled, in order to shorten warranties based on miles-driven in the cars.
Read more: Buy One Of These Electric Pickup Trucks Instead Of Humiliating Yourself With A Tesla Cybertruck
There's no proof that Tesla ever put that technology into use in its cars, but there's been talk on forums about Teslas over-estimating miles driven for years. It'll be interesting to see what happens in discovery should this lawsuit go to trial. As it stands, Tesla warranties on its vehicles range from 100,000 to 150,000 miles, depending on the model.
Tesla has faced plenty of litigation over the years, though its outlook in 2025 is very different. In 2024, it faced legal battles on everything from being accused of spewing pollution from its plant in California, to settling the lawsuit of the family of an Apple engineer who burned to death in a Model X, to a massive class action lawsuit from Tesla owners over self-driving promises.
Yet none of those cases could do to Tesla's reputation quite what the actions of its own CEO have achieved. Elon Musk's unpopular political involvement has sent sales of his company's cars plummeting around the world and here at home. Despite falling demand and growing problems, Musk has still found the time to work towards on getting his $56 billion pay day out of litigation from the state of Delaware, most recently by attempting to change the law that's preventing this truly dazzling sum of money from hitting his bank account.
Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox...
Read the original article on Jalopnik.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
12 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Elon will lose fight with Trump, Musk's father tells Russia
Credit: Tsargrad TV Elon Musk will lose his fight with Donald Trump and made a 'mistake' by challenging him, his father has said. Speaking at a political conference in Moscow, Errol Musk claimed his billionaire son was suffering 'PTSD from the White House' and blamed his row with the US president on 'stress'. 'Trump will prevail – he's the president, he was elected as the president. So, you know, Elon made a mistake, I think. But he is tired, he is stressed,' he told Russian media. Last week, Elon Musk and Mr Trump traded insults after the Tesla chief executive denounced the president's sweeping new tax and spending Bill as 'a disgusting abomination'. He also called for the president's impeachment and claimed the Republican was 'in the Epstein files' – US government intelligence documents on Jeffrey Epstein, the late paedophile financier. In response, Mr Trump threatened to cancel US government contracts with Mr Musk's companies, which include SpaceX. Errol Musk told Izvestia, a Russian daily newspaper: 'You know they have been under a lot of stress for five months – you know – give them a break. 'They are very tired and stressed, so you can expect something like this.' Despite the pair's war of words, Mr Musk said he still believed his son's relationship with the president could be mended, describing the row as 'just a small thing' that would 'be over tomorrow'. He made the comments during an appearance at Future Forum 2050, a conference attended by Kremlin heavyweights and led by Alexander Dugin, a Russian ultra-nationalist philosopher often described as Vladimir Putin's 'brain'. Errol Musk was also pictured sitting next to Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister. At one point he praised Putin as a 'very stable and pleasant man' and blamed Western media for projecting 'nonsense' about Russia. It came as Stephen Bannon, Mr Trump's former chief strategist, claimed that in April Elon Musk had a physical altercation with Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, down the corridor from the Oval Office. Mr Bannon said: 'President Trump heard about it and said: 'This is too much,'' according to The Washington Post. A source told the newspaper that concerns were also raised over Mr Musk's alleged drug use. Mr Musk, the world's richest man, helped bankroll Mr Trump's 2024 presidential campaign. He was then hired to head the new Department of Government Efficiency, controversially tasked with downsizing the federal workforce and slashing spending. The tech entrepreneur stepped back from the role late last month, ending a turbulent 130-day stint in the administration. On Saturday, the US president said his relationship with Mr Musk was over, and warned there would be 'serious consequences' if Mr Musk switched his allegiance to the Democrats and funded rival candidates. Credit: Reuters Delighting in the row, Russian MPs have offered political asylum to the South African-born businessman. Last week, Dmitry Novikov, the deputy chairman of the state Duma committee on international affairs, said Moscow would welcome him to the country 'if he needs it'. Senior Putin allies have also mockingly offered to help mediate between the two men. 'We are ready to facilitate the conclusion of a peace deal between D and E for a reasonable fee and to accept Starlink shares as payment. Don't fight, guys!' said Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president, referring to Mr Musk's satellite internet network. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.


Bloomberg
18 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Tesla's Retail Army Defies Musk-Trump Spat to Place Record ETF Bet
As Elon Musk's fortune plunged by $36 billion last week and Tesla Inc. 's stock suffered a brutal drubbing, his most ardent backers rushed in to buy the dip — with leverage. Investors poured $651 million into the Direxion Daily TSLA Bull 2X Shares (ticker TSLL), marking the largest weekly inflow since the fund's 2022 debut, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The biggest chunks came in on Thursday and Friday.
Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Why this analyst is 'skeptical' about Tesla's robotaxi plans
Tesla (TSLA) stock is in focus as investors wait for the company's robotaxi event on Thursday. The autonomous taxi launch comes just after CEO Elon Musk and US President Trump's public fallout. Guggenheim Securities director of automotive equity research, Ron Jewsikow, a longtime Tesla bear, joins Morning Brief with Brad Smith and Madison Mills to discuss what to expect from the robotaxi rollout. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Morning Brief here. Well, President Trump told NBC News this weekend that he had no desire to repair his relationship with Tesla CEO Elon Musk after the two exchanged heated blows on social media last week. Two Wall Street firms downgraded shares of the EV maker Monday after the stock fell more than 14% in the past week. Our next guest is a long-time Tesla bear with a sell rating and a $170 price target on the stock, Ron Josuko, Guggenheim Securities Automotive Equity Research director, joins us now. Ron, good to see you here with us this morning. So, I mean, just take us into, first, your thinking as the spat was playing out via social media and and Twitter fingers, essentially, were prevailing. But how much of this is an overhang to Tesla as an operation and as a manufacturer of vehicles? Yeah, it's a good question and and thanks for having me. I would say our basis for the stock has had very little to do with politics since, since Trump was elected, or before Trump was elected. But the the stock has clearly been sensitive to political headlines. The stock rallied almost 100% post election on this view that Trump would help deregulate autonomous vehicles and kind of clear a path for Tesla's robo taxi plans. We always thought that was a bit dubious. I think that states and local municipalities were always going to have a role to play in autonomous regulation. They do today and they will in the future. But there was clearly a bid in the stock on Tesla being tethered to to Trump. And we saw a lot of that unwind last week. For us, it doesn't change anything. We have not, we have not ascribed any value to any kind of political outcomes here, but it is, it is certainly creating a lot of noise in the stock. So what are those fundamental drivers, Ron, that you would want investors to perhaps refocus on to have good investor hygiene with regards to this name? Yeah, it's a good question. I mean, for us, we focus quite a bit on the vehicle business, the energy business and the potential robo taxi business. I think there's no denying that the robo taxi opportunity is a large opportunity. We just think it's much further into the future than, I think, the stock implies. Um, and in the meantime, the energy business is a nice growth driver, but it's nowhere near large enough to justify the current valuation and the auto business is deteriorating to the point where I I'm not sure it's free cash flow positive this year. Um, so and data through May looks, looks increasingly weak. There's been no acceleration on the new Model Y. So I think the fundamental drivers of the business, as it sits today, continues to skew negative. And then the robo taxi launch, we'll see how it goes. But I think the major question for us is when it goes from the planned 10 cars in Austin this month to something much larger and more generalized when this can actually go to multiple states. I know Tesla has pretty ambitious targets. I would say we're generally skeptical. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data