A US district judge has ruled that California drivers can proceed with a class action lawsuit against Tesla, alleging that CEO Elon Musk made misleading statements about the self-driving capabilities of the company’s electric vehicles (EVs), reported Reuters.
The decision, delivered by Judge Rita Lin in San Francisco, is based on the assertion that Tesla vehicles lacked the necessary sensors to achieve “high-level” autonomy and failed to complete a long-distance autonomous drive.
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The lawsuit encompasses two groups of drivers who purchased Tesla’s Full Self-Driving technology package.
Judge Lin highlighted that a significant number of people were likely exposed to Tesla’s claims about their vehicles’ hardware capabilities for full self-driving, as advertised on the “Autopilot” section of the company’s website from October 2016 to August last year.
These assertions were also made in a newsletter, blog post, quarterly earnings call, and by the EV maker CEO during a press conference in 2016.
The company said it was unreasonable to assume that all class members saw the challenged statements and argued that there was no common evidence to prove the statements’ materiality, the report said.
However, Judge Lin found it “reasonable to infer” that individuals interested in the Full Self-Driving technology would have sought information directly from the company’s website.
The certified class action includes drivers who purchased the Full Self-Driving package between 19 May 2017 and 31 July 2024, and did not opt into the company’s arbitration agreement, as well as those who purchased the package from 20 October 2016 to 19 May 2017.
However, the judge declined to certify a class of drivers who bought the Enhanced Autopilot package of the company, as the alleged false statements were deemed immaterial to their purchasing decisions due to the package not requiring full self-driving functionality.
Federal officials have been scrutinising the safety of Tesla’s full self-driving software, which is also a crucial element of the company’s proposed robotaxi service, stated the publication.
Recently, Tesla and Elon Musk faced a separate lawsuit from shareholders alleging securities fraud in relation to the automaker’s statements about the safety and capabilities of its self-driving vehicles, including the robotaxi service.
