In a case filed on Feb. 13, the electric vehicle giant claims the department “wrongfully and baselessly” labeled Tesla a “false advertiser,” and argues that the department did not effectively prove that customers were led to believe that the vehicles could be operated without human supervision.
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Last year, a judge in California’s Office of Administrative Hearings ruled that the company had engaged in deceptive marketing by describing its fleet’s driver assistance systems as having an “autopilot” mode. The court argued that Tesla’s autopilot and “full self-driving capability” (FSD) did not meet the required autonomous driving criteria. NHTSA’s Automation Levels System features have been rated by NHTSA as Level 2 automation, where Level 5 is a fully autonomous vehicle. The decision claims that at least Level 3 is required for features to be described as “self-driving”.
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The decision says that by using such words, Tesla has misled drivers and created consumer risk. Tesla has faced several legal challenges that have led to the deaths of several people due to its self-driving features. The company was found partially liable for a fatal, Autopilot-related incident in August.
California’s decision took effect on January 15, and included a 30-day trading suspension statewide unless the company stopped using the term in 60 days or changed its systems. Tesla responded in typical fashion: a cheeky social post and a claim that the decision would not affect sales. Then, in January, the company effectively discontinued basic Autopilot in the US, reshaping its fleet offering with a standard traffic awareness mode and the option to upgrade your vehicle to FSD, now called “Full Self-Driving (Supervised).”
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A few weeks later, the state’s DMV announced that Tesla had met its obligations and would not face suspension of its license, but now the company is fighting the decision even more vigorously.
“An administrative law judge found that Tesla broke state law by misleading consumers with the term ‘autopilot.’ Tesla agreed to stop this practice, and now they’re challenging it anyway. The DMV is committed to protecting the traveling public and will defend the administrative law judge’s findings and decision in court,” a DMV representative said in a statement to CNBC.
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