Tesla: a driver calls for a ban on the marketing of Autopilot

A Tesla owner named Briggs Matsko has filed a lawsuit in San Francisco against the automaker and its CEO, Elon Musk. Matsko claims that they “deceptively” market Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) Autopilot and “Full Self-Driving”.

According to Automotive News, the case is Matsko v. Tesla, US District Court, Northern District of California, #22-05240. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday as part of a class action lawsuit, accuses Tesla of misleading its customers by falsely advertising Autopilot and full self-driving features in its vehicles.

Matsko’s statements

Matsko complained that he paid $5,000 (€5,005.02) more for his 2018 Tesla Model X to benefit from the improved Autopilot. The latter was sold as a precursor to “Full Self-Driving” technology, a $15,000 add-on software that is still not ready to ship. Matsko wants an injunction that will subsequently bar Tesla from commercializing ADAS, the return of the money it spent on the technology, and damages.

The problem is that Tesla and Elon Musk sell products that are not yet available or functional or even non-existent. They said they were on the verge of perfecting this famous technology and fulfilling their promise to produce a fully autonomous system, but which was slow to come out.

That’s not Tesla’s only concern

At this time, Tesla has not yet responded to requests for comment. As a reminder, the company dissolved its media relations department in 2020. In fact, it is currently facing another class action lawsuit regarding, according to The Verge, “ phantom braking incidents which plagued Tesla’s adaptive cruise control features for several years.

According to Tesla, Autopilot allows vehicles to steer, accelerate and brake. As for full autonomous driving, it allows cars to obey traffic lights and change lanes. The automaker has announced this technology since 2016.

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