Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, LLP is currently investigating Tesla for allegedly misleading the public for years about its Full Self-Driving Capability software (“FSD”). Since 2016, Tesla misleadingly and deceptively marketed FSD as a technology that was either already fully functional or just around the corner. As Tesla states in a video first published on its website in October 2016 that purports to show a Tesla car driving itself, “The person in the driver’s seat is only there for legal reasons. He is not driving anything. The car is driving itself.” The New York Times would later report that the video was doctored to exclude, among other things, the Tesla crashing into a barrier.
Six years later in 2022, Tesla has yet to produce anything even remotely approaching a fully self-driving car. Tesla owners receiving the latest “updates” in Tesla’s FSD beta software and Autopilot software (which is the foundation of FSD) have reported a myriad of problems, such as cars having difficulty making right turns, running red lights, and steering into oncoming traffic. There have also been numerous collisions involving Tesla’s purportedly cutting-edge software, including vehicles crashing at high speeds into large stationary objects such as emergency vehicles and an overturned box truck. Dozens of people have suffered fatal and other serious injuries as a result, triggering investigations by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (“NHTSA”), the National Transportation Safety Board (“NTSB”), and other federal and state regulators.
If you own a 2016 to Present Tesla Model 3, S, Y, or X with the Full Self-Driving Capability option and would like more information about our investigation, please contact Nabilah Hossain or call our main line at (650) 697-6000.
