Tesla Hits Back At California DMV For Forcing Rebrand Of Driver Assistance Features: Report

According to CNBC, Tesla in a complaint alleged that the agency “wrongfully and baselessly” labeled Tesla a “false advertiser” for its prior use of the terms Autopilot and Full Self-Driving.

• Tesla added that the department never proved consumers in the state had been confused about whether its cars were safe to drive without a human at the wheel.
• In December, an administrative law judge found Tesla’s use of “Autopilot” to describe its advanced driver-assistance system violated state law.
• Earlier this month, the agency said that the company said that no license suspension would be required, provided Tesla did the needful by renaming the features.

EV giant Tesla Inc. (TSLA) is reportedly suing California’s Department of Motor Vehicles to reverse a ruling that found the automaker violated the law by falsely promoting its cars’ self-driving capabilities.

According to CNBC, Tesla in a complaint alleged that the agency “wrongfully and baselessly” labeled Tesla a “false advertiser” for its prior use of the terms Autopilot and Full Self-Driving.

It further added that the department never proved consumers in the state had been confused about whether its cars were safe to drive without a human at the wheel.

DMV-Tesla Tensions

In December, an administrative law judge found Tesla’s use of “Autopilot” to describe its advanced driver-assistance system violated state law. While the original ruling called for 30-day suspensions of Tesla’s licenses, the DMV reduced the penalty and instead gave the company 60 days to fix its marketing language.

Regulators said Tesla’s marketing materials, going back to 2021, used terms such as “Autopilot” and “Full Self-Driving Capability” alongside descriptions that could lead consumers to believe the vehicles were capable of driving themselves.

Tesla Issues Fix

Earlier this month, the agency said that no license suspension would be required, provided Tesla did the needful. Tesla now uses the name Full Self-Driving (Supervised) instead for its driver assistance technology. The company also dropped the ‘Autopilot’ label in California to describe its less-advanced driver assistance features.

Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk are hopeful that its FSD technology will enable autonomous driving in time. However, FSD on consumer vehicles is yet to enable robotaxi-like driving, and instead requires active driver supervision. Last month, Musk refused to give a definite timeline for when FSD will allow fully autonomous driving, though he has previously given timelines as early as 2017.

How Did Stocktwits Users React?

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around TSLA stock stayed within ‘bullish’ territory over the past 24 hours, while message volume stayed at ‘low’ levels.

TSLA stock has gained 21% over the past 12 months.