Tesla and California's DMV are facing off, over the car company's self-driving claims
There, attorneys for the electric car company and the Department of Motor Vehicles are facing off this week before an administrative judge, over claims that Tesla deceived consumers with its autopilot and self-driving features.
Officials at the DMV filed those allegations in July 2022 and amended them in November 2023, seeking to suspend Tesla's licenses to manufacture and sell vehicles in California for at least 30 days. Additionally, the department is pursuing a court order for the electric vehicle to pay an undetermined sum in restitution.
In court filings, attorneys for the state Department of Justice have cited four phrases or product descriptions from Tesla's website that state officials describe as misleading or that amount to false advertising. These include: 'autopilot'; 'full self-driving capability'; a promise that the system 'is designed to be able to conduct short and long-distance trips with no action required by the person in the driver's seat'; and claims that cars can effectively drive people to their destinations, with the vehicle navigating streets, freeways and intersections and then automatically parking itself.
'These labels and descriptions represent specifically that respondent (Tesla)'s vehicles will operate as autonomous vehicles, which they could not and cannot do,' Attorney General Rob Bonta wrote in a July 17 brief.
Attorneys for Tesla argue, to the contrary, that while the company's driver assistance technology qualifies as 'state of the art,' the company 'has always made clear' that its vehicles are not fully autonomous, and that they require 'active driver supervision' from a human.
As this case proceeds through administrative court in Oakland, Tesla is facing a separate federal trial in Miami that threatens to fell its autopilot system and its brand image. The Miami case centers on a 2019 fatal crash of a Tesla Model S sedan with its autopilot engaged. According to court documents, the Tesla driver had bent to pick up a cell phone he had dropped when suddenly his car rammed into a parked SUV, killing one person and seriously injuring another.
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