Tesla: Self-driving technology may be ‘failure’ — but not fraud
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving technology may be a failure, Tesla lawyers admit — but it’s not a fraud.
The electric car company is facing a class-action lawsuit from Autopilot and Full Self-Driving, or FSD, technology customers. They claim they were ripped off, duped by statements from co-founder and CEO Elon Musk and marketing materials from Tesla over the past six years suggesting full-fledged autonomous driving was imminent.
No Tesla on the road today is capable of full self driving, and yet Tesla sells what it calls a Full Self-Driving Capability for $15,000.
In its defense, Tesla lawyers said that “mere failure to realize a longterm, aspirational goal is not fraud.” That argument is contained in a motion to dismiss the case that was recently filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. The main plaintiff is Briggs Matsko, a resident of Rancho Murieta, California.
If the case goes forward, it could lead to deposition of Tesla employees who helped develop the technology and reveal what Musk knew and didn’t know about its true capabilities when he made numerous forecasts over the years — including the prediction that there would be a million Tesla robotaxis on the road by the end of 2020, that customers could make $30,000 a year hiring them out, and that their cars would appreciate in value.
Tesla lawyers are attempting to prevent that information from going public. The motion to dismiss the case rests mainly on Tesla’s contention that the papers customers signed when they bought their cars obligate them to individually file claims through the private arbitration system.
A public trial allows for customers to file as a large group, known as a class; arbitration means each customer would be on his or her own.
While a public trial could reveal testimony from current or former Tesla employees on the state of Tesla’s automated technology development at any given time, arbitration would keep that testimony secret.