The California Department of Motor Vehicles may temporarily suspend sales of Tesla vehicles in the state. This possibility comes after a judge ruled against the company for making misleading claims about its Autopilot and fully autonomous driving features.
Based on this ruling, the DMV is giving Tesla 60 days to take action on how it describes its Autopilot and fully autonomous driving features to consumers.
“If Tesla fails to resolve the issue, after 60 days, it will be subject to a 30-day suspension of its dealer license,” the DMV said in a press release.
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This suspension would prevent Tesla from selling vehicles in the state for those 30 days. The DMV filed its action to suspend Tesla in the state in Julybut it was the result of several years of complaints from the department about Tesla’s advertising practices.
Tesla has since added “(Supervised)” to its fully autonomous driving description and homepage.
The DMV blocked a judge’s recommendation that Tesla also face a suspension of its manufacturing license in the state and issued a permanent stay of that penalty.
A Tesla representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Tesla’s descriptions of his Autopilot and fully autonomous driving have been controversial and are also the subject of a class action lawsuit. The question is whether Tesla’s marketing of these features implies that they require no driver supervision or action. Some lawsuits have claimed that this type of marketing has leads to accidents involving drivers who placed too much trust in Tesla’s technology.
Meanwhile, Tesla is working to expand self-driving functionality. to other countries where it sells vehicles.
