Overview
- Multiple Tesla owners, including Oliver Abcarius, told reporters their FSD purchase documents now either link to invalid pages or show the word “supervised” that did not appear when they bought the software.
- Tesla sold a package called “Full Self-Driving Capability” from 2016 through early 2024 with public promises of future unsupervised autonomy before rebranding the product as supervised in 2024 and later acknowledging Hardware 3.0 cars cannot achieve unsupervised FSD.
- The company faces extensive litigation tied to those earlier promises, including a certified US class action covering the 2016–2024 period, an arbitration refund ordered to a buyer, and a California finding of false advertising, with combined exposure reported at roughly $14.5 billion.
- Legal experts say making original contracts inaccessible while litigation is pending creates a clear risk of spoliation claims because those documents are central evidence and courts can impose sanctions or adverse inferences.
- Reporters note the contract changes fit a wider pattern of removed or revised records — including a deleted 2016 blog post and regional rebrands — and that owners seeking refunds or damages should document access problems now because courts may compel Tesla to produce originals.