Tesla: Our ‘failure' to make actual self-driving cars ‘is not fraud' Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said numerous times since 2015 that Tesla cars would be entirely self-driving in two years, or less. But years after his self-imposed deadlines have blown by, it still hasn't happened. Even when equipped with a $15,000 technology package that is literally called “Full Self Driving Capability,” a Tesla car can't actually drive by itself, reports my colleague Peter Valdes-Dapena.
Now, lawyers for Tesla are arguing that while the company may have failed to live up to these lofty goals, that doesn't mean it perpetuated a fraud, as alleged in a class-action lawsuit filed in September.
“Mere failure to realize a long-term, aspirational goal is not fraud,” Tesla's lawyers wrote in a November 28 court filing, asking that the suit be dismissed.
The lawsuit cited numerous times when Musk and others at Tesla had stated that, within a year or two, the cars would be fully self-driving thanks to software updates. For instance, in a 2016 Tweet, Musk stated that a Tesla car would be able to drive itself across the United States “by next year,” the suit said.
The lawsuit, filed by the California firm of Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, also cited numerous cases of crashes involving the use of Tesla's driver assist technology.
