Tesla lands in more hot water over Elon Musk's Full Self Driving claims

Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk has made some boisterous claims about his company's self-driving tech that have not come to fruition.

This tendency has ruffled the feathers of Tesla supporters and insiders in the past.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak may have never counted Elon Musk as one of his friends personally, but he definitely was a former believer in Tesla and its self-driving ambitions.

But his opinion of the tech changed once he started using it.

“Boy, if you want to study AI gone wrong, and making a lot of claims, and trying to kill you every chance it can, get a Tesla,” Wozniak told CNN in a 2023 interview.

It wasn't the first time he called out the company. He has accused Tesla and Elon Musk of overpromising and underdelivering in the past.

“A lot of honesty disappears when you look at Elon Musk and Tesla. They have robbed my family, myself and my wife, of so much money… with things they said that we really believed would be real,” Wozniak has previously stated.

This week, a California judge ruled that Tesla must face a class action lawsuit over claims it made.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has made some outrageous claims about the cars' capabilities.

BRITTA PEDERSEN/POOL/AFP via Getty

U.S. District Court judge rules Tesla FSD civil suit can move forward

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Rita Lin ruled that Tesla must face a California class action lawsuit alleging the company misled customers about Full Self Driving's (FSD) capabilities.

The judge ruled that the common question of whether Tesla lacked the sensors to achieve the
high level of autonomy it advertises and its inability to ̈demonstrate a long-distance autonomous
drive with any of its vehicles ̈ justified the lawsuit brought by two different sets of drivers who
bought Tesla’s Full Self-Driving technology package.

The San Francisco-based judge also said that she considered the thousands of people who
likely saw the Autopilot claim Tesla left on its website from October 2016 to August 2024 that its
vehicles contained hardware for full self-driving as part of her decision.

̈While these channels alone may not ordinarily be enough to establish class-wide exposure for
a traditional car manufacturer, Tesla’s distinctive advertising strategy warrants a departure from
the typical approach, ̈ Lin wrote, according to Reuters.

Tesla has argued in the past that it is unreasonable to assume that all class members saw the
Autopilot claims on the website, and there is no common proof that the statements are
material to the complaint.

However, the judge argued that since Tesla doesn’t use mass advertising or independent dealers, it is
reasonable to infer that class members interested in FSD visited Tesla ́s website to get more
information before purchasing.

One of the California classes includes drivers who purchased the FSD package from May 19,
2017, to July 31, 2024, and opted out of Tesla’s arbitration agreement. The other class bought
the package from October 20, 2016, to May 19, 2017.

The case is In re Tesla Advanced Driver Assistance Systems Litigation, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 22-05240.

Tesla has a history of settling Autopilot claims out of court

While Tesla says that its driving technology is much safer than human drivers, from July 2021 to July 2022, according to the law firm Simmons Hanly Conroy, there were at least 273 reported accidents involving Tesla Autopilot or self-driving tech.

In fact, Tesla has been involved in numerous settlements, some confidential, over its self-driving technology.

$10.5 million settlement – California 2023: A Tesla Model X with Autopilot engaged hit a highway barrier, killing the driver. The family said Autopilot failed to detect the obstacle and that Tesla misrepresented its capabilities.
$8.2 million settlement – California 2022: A pedestrian was killed in a crosswalk by a Tesla Model 3 with Autopilot engaged that didn't stop or alert the driver of an issue until it was too late.
$7.5 million settlement – California 2021: A Tesla Model S with Autopilot engaged rear-ended a stopped vehicle at high speed, instantly killing the victim. Investigators said they found no evidence that the car even tried to brake before the collision.
$6.8 million settlement – California 2020: A Tesla Model X with Autopilot engaged crashed into a parked fire truck. The driver of the vehicle survived, but the passenger died from blunt force trauma.