California's Department of Motor Vehicles is reviewing whether Tesla is violating a state regulation by advertising its vehicles as being fully autonomous without meeting the legal definition of self-driving.
A Tesla
equipped with the $10,000 full self-driving package can change lanes, take
highway exit ramps, and stop at traffic lights and stop signs on its own, the
company says. However, it is not capable of fully driving itself, according to
widely accepted engineering standards.
Asked for
detail, DMV spokesperson Anita Gore said via email, “The DMV cannot comment on
the pending review.” She did list the penalties that might be applied if a
company is found to have violated DMV regulations that prohibit misleading
advertising concerning automated vehicles.
In small
print, Tesla says on its website that full self-driving “does not make the car
autonomous” and that “active supervision” is required by the driver. But social
media are rife with videos showing drivers, mostly young men, overcoming
Tesla’s easily defeated driver-monitoring system to crawl into the back seat
and let the Tesla “drive itself” down public highways.
A man was
arrested by the California Highway Patrol last week and charged with reckless
driving for pulling the same dangerous stunt on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay
Bridge.
Although a
driver is legally responsible for such misbehavior, the fine print in Tesla
advertising provides a weak defense against deceptive marketing allegations,
said Bryant Walker Smith, a leading expert on automated vehicle law at the
University of South Carolina. He cites the Lanham Act, the federal law that
governs trademarks.
If the DMV
finds Tesla is misleading customers, potential penalties include suspension or
revocation of DMV autonomous vehicle deployment permits and manufacture and
dealer licenses, the DMV spokesperson said. She added that “a vehicle operating
on public roads using autonomous technology without first obtaining a permit
can be removed from the public roadway by a police officer.”
Although
the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has no authority to regulate
vehicle advertising, the DMV’s own rules allow it to sanction manufacturers
that advertise a vehicle as autonomous when it is not. The Federal Trade
Commission also regulates such advertising; an FTC spokesperson declined to
comment. A request to interview the DMV’s director, Steve Gordon, was declined.
Tesla lacks a media relations department.
In July
2020, a Munich court ruled that Tesla had been misleading consumers about the
capabilities of its autonomous systems and ordered the company’s German
subsidiary to stop using phrases such as “full potential for autonomous
driving” on its website and in advertising materials.
The DMV has
said that Autopilot and full self-driving as currently deployed qualify as
Level 2 driver-assist technologies that require full driver attention, as
defined by the Society of Automotive Engineers, and so are allowed on
California highways without the data reporting that’s required for autonomous
vehicle testing. Other automated driving technology companies — including
Waymo, Argo AI, Cruise, Zoox and Aurora — provide such data to the state. Those
companies use rigorously trained safety drivers to test automated technologies
on public roads. Tesla does not.
The Society
of Automotive Engineers’ detailed J3016 standard for autonomous cars lists
“self-driving” as a term that “can lead to confusion, misunderstanding, and
diminished credibility” when describing levels of automated vehicles.
“Tesla
seems to be asking for legal trouble on many fronts,” law professor Smith said.
“From the FTC and its state counterparts for deceptive marketing. From the
California DMV for, potentially, crossing into the realm of autonomous vehicle
testing without state approval, from competitors with driver assistance
systems, competitors with actual automated driving systems, ordinary consumers,
and future crash victims who could sue under state or federal law.”
Tesla is
facing hundreds of lawsuits. At least several deaths have been connected with
use or misuse of Autopilot. NHTSA has more than 20 investigations open on
Tesla, though how long they’ll take to be resolved, NHTSA won’t say. China,
through its state-controlled media, has been drubbing Tesla for weeks with
stories detailing crashes, brake issues and customer complaints about quality.
Tesla Chief
Executive Elon Musk has been stating since 2016 that fully automated Teslas are
coming soon. Although Musk has yet to deliver a fully automated car, Tesla continues
to test automated features on public streets. Recently it deployed what it
calls full self-driving “beta” software to select customers, who are
experimenting with the software’s ability to automate vehicles not just on
divided highways but on city streets and through residential neighborhoods.
The latest
release includes automated right- and left-hand turns. An even more
feature-laden beta version will be released soon, Musk tweeted in April. “Beta”
refers to software that’s released to some customers but still has bugs to be
worked out.
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