Overview
- Tesa’s lawsuit seeks to reverse the DMV order and restore use of the terms “Autopilot” and “Full Self‑Driving capability,” arguing the ruling was factually wrong and legally flawed.
- An administrative judge previously found Tesla’s marketing misleading for suggesting its cars can drive themselves, and the DMV warned of a one‑month sales suspension unless ads were corrected.
- Following the ruling, Tesla removed the Autopilot label from some materials and added “supervised” to descriptions of Full Self‑Driving, according to company marketing updates.
- DMV records show Tesla has not applied for required driverless permits, has reported only 562 autonomous test miles in California since 2016, and has logged none since 2019, in contrast to Waymo’s millions of miles and multiple approvals.
- In California, Tesla’s so‑called robotaxi service uses human drivers operating supervised Full Self‑Driving, while a small Austin pilot has drawn witness reports of glitches.