Tesla Goes After California DMV, Suing Over False Advertising Decision

Tesla claims California "wrongfully and baselessly" branded it a false advertiser over its “Autopilot” and “Full Self-Driving” labels. Tesla is apparently still insisting its “Autopilot” and “Full Self-Driving” labels are acceptable for the advanced driver assistance systems it offers on its vehicles. The automaker is suing the California DMV to reverse a ruling in December that the automaker had engaged in false advertising and could suspend its license to sell vehicles in the state. As reported by CNBC, Tesla filed a complaint on Feb. 13 that the DMV ruling “wrongfully and baselessly labels Tesla a false advertiser for marketing its industry-leading advanced driver-assistance systems (‘ADAS’) under the brand names ‘Autopilot” and ‘Full-Self Driving Capability.’” The automaker, prior to its suit, changed the official name of the system to “Full-Self Driving (Supervised)” but kept Autopilot as standard equipment on most models. That changed again in January when Autopilot disappeared from the equipment list and it was announced that beginning this month it would stop offering FSD (Supervised) as a standalone option, with Tesla instead turning the option into a subscription service that costs $99 per month. The California DMV, according to CNBC, said Tesla would not incur a license suspension because it had changed its marketing by the following week. Still, the company insists in the complaint the Autopilot name is “not actually unambiguously false or counterfactual,” and that consumers would reasonably understand what the name meant, and that other courts understood that no Tesla sold to consumers with these ADAS systems was currently autonomous. Tesla insists it did not get its due process in the hearings. The complaint was filed in California, Tesla said, because of the company’s significant presence in the state, the number of employees it has, and because the Model Y has been the best-selling car in California for the last three years.