California drivers who purchased Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) software package can now pursue a class action lawsuit, following a ruling that Tesla likely misled consumers about its autonomous driving capabilities.
U.S. District Judge Rita Lin found that Tesla’s marketing — through its website, blog, earnings calls and statements from CEO Elon Musk during a 2016 press conference — created a common basis of alleged misrepresentation that warrants group litigation.
Since Tesla doesn’t use traditional channels of mass advertising, Lin said, it’s reasonable to assume customers went to the EV maker’s website to learn about FSD software.
California drivers who bought the FSD package between May 19, 2017, and July 31, 2024, and opted out of Tesla’s arbitration agreement, or bought it between Oct. 20, 2016, and May 19, 2017, are eligible to join the class.
This ruling arrives amid a broader escalation of legal and regulatory scrutiny over Tesla’s ADAS, including a separate $329 million jury verdict in Florida, which found Tesla partly liable in a fatal Autopilot crash. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also launched a formal defect investigation into Autopilot in 2021 after crashes with emergency vehicles, and is separately probing whether Tesla’s 2023 over-the-air “recall remedy” actually fixed the problem.
