The company has two weeks to respond to the investigation or risk temporarily losing its licenses to operate as a vehicle manufacturer and car dealer in California. Over the years, Tesla has been criticized for how it advertises its Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS). One of the main concerns was the actual names of the system “Autopilot” and “Full Self-Driving Capability”. Some people think the names suggest the systems are autonomous, even though they are only driver assistance systems. The California DMV, which has some authority over Tesla since it has many operations in the state, has shared those concerns in the past. Now he’s putting the pressure on Tesla with not one but two filings with the California Office of Administrative Hearings alleging that Tesla is falsely promoting these systems as “autonomous” (via CNBC): “Rather than simply identifying product or brand names, these labels and descriptions ‘Autopilot’ and ‘Full Self-Driving Capability’ represent that vehicles equipped with ADAS features will operate as an autonomous vehicle, but vehicles equipped with these features ADAS could not at the time of these advertisements and cannot now operate as autonomous vehicles. The DMV’s taking a two-pronged approach, pushing for Tesla to change its marketing around Autopilot and full self-driving, and also to separately investigate the capabilities of Tesla’s system as part of a safety review. Last year, Tesla’s communications with the DMV via Full Self-Driving were released and caused some confusion. Some of the comments Tesla made to the DMV could be interpreted as contradicting what Tesla and Elon Musk are saying publicly. Tesla is trying to convince the DMV that its Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta is not a Level 4 or 5 autonomous driving system, so it does not need to report data to the DMV. On the advertising front, California DMV Deputy Director for the Office of Public Affairs Anita Gore said: “It will require Tesla to advertise to consumers and better educate Tesla drivers about the capabilities of the Autopilot and Full Self-Driving features, including warnings about feature limitations and other actions as appropriate due to of violations”. Tesla now has 15 days to respond to the DMV’s questions or risk losing its licenses to operate as a vehicle manufacturer and car dealer in California Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.
