California warns Tesla faces 30-day sale ban for misleading use of "autopilot"
The California DMV on Tuesday said Tesla Motors faces a possible 30-day sale ban over its misleading use of the term "autopilot" in its marketing of electric vehicles.
On Nov. 20, an administrative judge ruled that Tesla Motors' use of "autopilot " and "full self-driving capability" was a misleading description of its "advanced driving assistant features," and that it violated state law, the DMV said.
In their decision, the judge proposed suspending Tesla's manufacturing and dealer license for 30 days. However, the DMV is giving Tesla 60 days to address its use of the term "autopilot" before temporarily suspending its dealer license.
"Tesla can take simple steps to pause this decision and permanently resolve this issue — steps autonomous vehicle companies and other automakers have been able to achieve in California's nation-leading and supportive innovation marketplace," DMV Director Steve Gordon said.
Tesla had already stopped its use of "full self-driving capability" and switched to "full self-driving (supervised)" after the DMV filed accusations against it in November 2023.
The DMV said its decision to file those accusations stretches back to Tesla's 2021 marketing of its advanced driver assistance system. Besides the two terms, the DMV said it also took issue with the phrase, "The system is designed to be able to conduct short and long-distance trips with no action required by the person in the driver's seat."
"Vehicles equipped with those ADAS features could not at the time of those advertisements, and cannot now, operate as autonomous vehicles," the DMV said.
As for the manufacturing license suspension, the DMV issued a permanent stay on that proposal.