A spokesperson for the court said the complaint had been
rejected on July 28, effectively allowing Tesla to keep using the phrases
"full potential for autonomous driving" and "Autopilot
inclusive" in its German advertising materials.
Industry publication Teslamag first reported the rejection
earlier this week.
The complaint by Wettbewerbszentrale came in response to a
ruling by the higher regional court Munich in October 2021 that confirmed an
appeal by Tesla against a previous verdict by a lower district court that
prohibited the use of the phrases.
Tesla earlier this month was also accused by a California
state transportation regulator of falsely advertising its Autopilot and Full
Self-Driving features as providing autonomous vehicle control.
Last week, two US lawmakers who chair subcommittees overseeing
auto safety asked the federal auto safety regulator for a briefing on its
probes into crashes involving Tesla electric vehicles using Autopilot and
advanced driver assistance systems, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
US Senator Gary Peters and Representative Jan Schakowsky,
both Democrats, said in the letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA) that they were concerned that "federal
investigations and recent reporting have uncovered troubling safety
issues" at Tesla.
The lawmakers asked, "given the mounting number of
fatalities involving Tesla vehicles crashing into tractor trailers...has NHTSA
considered opening a defect investigation into this issue?"
The letter added "does NHTSA strike a balance between
investigative thoroughness and addressing urgent, emerging risks to motor
vehicle safety?" and if the agency has enough resources and legal
authority to properly investigate advanced driver assistance systems.
NHTSA did not immediately comment. In July, NHTSA
Administrator Steve Cliff told Reuters he wanted to complete the investigation
into Tesla's advanced driver assistance system Autopilot "as quickly as we
possibly can but I also want to get it right. There's a lot of information that
we need to comb through." © Reuters
0 comments:
Post a Comment