Tesla’s advanced driving systems must now find their way to court. A Tesla owner has been driven to file a lawsuit against the electric carmaker as they believe the company’s false claims have misled customers. The impending Tesla lawsuit claims that its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) features fall short of the promises made by the firm.
In the Tesla lawsuit, the plaintiff accuses the company of falsely advertising that the technology is nearing completion when the truth was that the technology was pretty much non-existent.
What is Tesla accused of?
The lead plaintiff is Briggs Matsko, a financial planner from Sacramento, who filed the Tesla lawsuit in a federal court in San Francisco. He says, “Tesla has yet to produce anything even remotely approaching a fully self-driving car.” The lawsuit against Tesla is also citing government investigation into its Autopilot and FSD features.
Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, LLP filed the lawsuit on behalf of the plaintiff, and in a press release, wrote, “The lawsuit filed today alleges that Tesla has yet to produce a fully self-driving car. Tesla owners receiving the latest “updates” to Tesla’s Autopilot software and FSD beta software have reported myriad problems, such as cars having difficulty making routine turns, running red lights, and steering into oncoming traffic. There have also been numerous collisions involving Tesla’s purportedly cutting-edge software, including vehicles crashing at high speeds into large stationary objects such as emergency vehicles and an overturned box truck.”
Matsko says that he has spent $5000 for the advanced driver-assistance system technology since 2018. The Tesla lawsuit also calls out the company for using misleading language and is seeking class-action status for his suit. He accused the company of false advertising starting from 2016. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for people who have bought or leased Teslas with Autopilot, Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self-Driving features since 2016.
What are the problems with Tesla cars?
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), between July 20, 2021, and May 21, 2022, there have been 273 crashes involving vehicles using Tesla’s Autopilot feature. The first death involving a person using Tesla’s Autopilot software occurred in 2016 when the victim’s Tesla Model S crashed into a tractor-trailer in Florida.
In 2018, Tesla CEO Elon Musk blamed driver overconfidence as the reason behind the crashes while using Tesla’s Autopilot feature.
The NHTSA is currently investigating 16 crashes that involve Teslas on Autopilot crashing into stationary vehicles. Most of these incidents reportedly happened after dark and the software ignored control signs.
Why is Tesla controversial?
Tesla has claimed that its Autopilot feature will enable vehicles to steer, accelerate and brake within their lanes, while the FSD will autosteer on city streets and follow traffic and stop signals. On its website, the company also mentions that Autopilot, Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self-Driving Capability are intended for use “with a fully attentive driver, who has their hands on the wheel and is prepared to take over at any moment.”
Lawsuits against Tesla range from Autopilot issues to alleged racial abuse. Tesla’s lawsuits are so great in number that they have a dedicated Wikipedia page. Tesla’s numbers are also much higher in comparison to its peers, mostly because it outsells its competitors by a large margin.
In June, 15 Tesla employees (former and current) filed a lawsuit claiming that they faced racial abuse and harassment at their workplace.
California’s Department of Motor Vehicles has also accused the carmaker of false advertising regarding Autopilot systems in July. The lawsuit against Tesla alleges that the company has been blatantly lying despite being nowhere close to producing a fully self-driving car.
Tesla, which closed its media department in 2020, has not yet commented on the lawsuit.
