A Tesla owner from California, Briggs Matsko, has sued electric car maker Tesla and Elon Musk, the company’s CEO, for “deceptively and misleadingly” advertising the Autopilot and “Full Self-Driving” assistance features since 2016. The owner said that he paid a $5,000 premium for his 2018 Tesla Model X to get ‘Enhanced Autopilot’, which was sold as a precursor to FSD software that now costs $15,000 but is still in the Beta phase.
Tesla’s Autopilot claims
Matsko said just like him many Tesla drivers have paid thousands of dollars for Enhanced Autopilot which was sold as a precursor to “Full Self-Driving” tech. This is now a paid software add-on package that still isn’t ready to ship.
Matsko is seeking class-action status for the lawsuit that he has filed the lawsuit in the federal court in San Francisco. In his lawsuit, he claimed that Tesla has deceived and misled consumers regarding the current abilities of its ADAS technology by representing that it was perpetually on the cusp of perfecting that technology and finally fulfilling its promise of producing a fully self-driving car.
The lawsuit reads, “deceived and misled consumers regarding the current abilities of its ADAS [advanced driver-assistance system] technology and by representing that it was perpetually on the cusp of perfecting that technology and finally fulfilling its promise of producing a fully self-driving car”, adding, “contrary to Tesla’s repeated promises that it would have a fully self-driving car within months or a year, Tesla has never been remotely close to achieving that goal.” Tesla is already facing another class-action lawsuit targeting “phantom braking incidents”.
Last month, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) also announced that it is taking a stance against Tesla for a similar claim. The DMV wants Tesla to “educate consumers,” which translates to advertising which Tesla has not done. Along with this, DMV and the State of California are also trying to make it illegal for Tesla to use the term, “Full Self-Driving,” to label its software.
The electric car maker has come under heavy scrutiny on the controversial Autopilot advanced driver assistance system that has allegedly killed many. Both the US federal and state regulators are turning up the heat on Tesla.
