Tesla and Musk sued by shareholders for misleading ‘full self-driving’ promises

Tesla shareholders have sued the company and CEO Elon Musk for overstating the effectiveness of ‘Autopilot’ safety assistance systems and ‘full self-driving’ (FSD) technologies.

According to Automotive News Europe, a class action lawsuit was filed in San Francisco’s federal court on Monday, with shareholders alleging that Tesla defrauded them across four years with false and misleading statements that hid how its technologies “created a serious risk of accident and injury.”

Autopilot – which is only a safety-assist suite consisting of auto emergency braking, blind-spot alert, adaptive cruise control, and lane-centring assist – has been under the spotlight of regulators (and media) as a suspected cause of multiple fatal accidents globally, in addition to driver inattentiveness.

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The news comes as the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) safety authority forced Tesla to issue a voluntary recall for its FSD beta trial, which has been running since late 2020, as it is deemed ‘unsafe’.

In response, the popular electric car company’s share price fell by 5.7 per cent on February 16 and is another focus area of the lawsuit as shareholders have “suffered significant losses and damages”.

Tesla now admits FSD beta is only a “SAE Level 2 driver support feature that can provide steering and braking/acceleration support to the driver under certain operating limitations. In certain rare circumstances and within the FSD Beta operating limitations… it could potentially infringe upon local traffic laws or customs while executing these driving maneuvers in specific conditions,” according to its support page.

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Musk has famously promised the roll out of full autonomous driving publicly almost every year since 2014 and the company has been subject to previous class action lawsuits from disgruntled customers complaining that they have paid for a broken promise.

Full self-driving capability is currently a $10,100 option for all new and existing Tesla electric cars in Australia. It only brings ‘Enhanced Autopilot’ assistance features, and traffic light and stop sign control when adaptive cruise control is activated.

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