Tesla’s Full Self-Driving package claims are under DMV review for misleading advertising

The California DMV is reviewing Tesla’s claims regarding the Full Self-Driving package for potential misleading advertising, according to a new report.

The report in question is coming from the Los Angeles Times‘ Russ Mitchell, who is a known Tesla detractor, but he is apparently directly quoting the California DMV in this case:

Tesla is “under review” by the California Department of Motor Vehicles to determine whether the company misleads customers by advertising its “full self-driving capability” option, the agency told the Times.

The California DMV is overseeing the autonomous driving programs in the state, and it is apparently looking into the claims made by Tesla for its Full Self-Driving package, also known as FSD.

Without commenting directly on the claims made by Tesla, the DMV said that they have some recourses if the automaker is found to be misleading:

If the DMV finds Tesla is misleading customers, potential penalties include suspension or revocation of DMV autonomous vehicle deployment permits and manufacture and dealer licenses, the DMV spokesperson said. She added that “a vehicle operating on public roads using autonomous technology without first obtaining a permit can be removed from the public roadway by a police officer.”

The report didn’t offer any timeline for the review of the FSD package claims, which are the following:

• Navigate on Autopilot
• Auto Lane Change
• Autopark
• Summon
• Full Self-Driving Computer
• Traffic Light and Stop Sign Control

Tesla is also adding one feature under “coming later this year”:

• Autosteer on city streets

This feature is currently being tested in beta in the US and once it is released to the wider fleet and tested over billions of miles for reliability, it would lead to a full level 5 autonomous driving system, according to the automaker.

Electrek’s Take

If I had to bet, I’d bet that this is going to be another nothing burger.

Tesla has always been fairly clear that the potential of the “Full Self-Driving” package to actually deliver a level 5 autonomous driving system is dependent on several factors, and it’s certainly not available in any car right now.

If you have a Tesla vehicle and you think it’s self-driving, you really need to be not paying attention to Tesla’s communications, which have been pretty clear.

Personally, I feel like most people who think that Tesla vehicles are currently self-driving are not driving Tesla vehicles, but there are definitely a few exceptions.

For example, there was the total idiot we reported on last week who was arrested by the police for misusing Tesla’s Autopilot features.

But that guy is the exception, not the rule.

In my opinion, Tesla is not guilty of purposely misleading customers with FSD, but it is guilty of missing timelines announced by Elon.

For that, I think Tesla should let owners who don’t believe in Tesla’s ability to deliver on the promises to be reimbursed if they purchase the FSD package.

On the other side, some customers are guilty of using Tesla’s FSD and Autopilot features like idiots.

With that said, I think Tesla could do more to prevent some of those idiots from misusing the features, but you can’t idiot-proof everything.