Investigation into Elon Musk’s “misleading” statements about self-driving cars | News

Tesla was accused last year by a California regulator of misleading advertising about the self-driving capabilities of its cars. For example, Tesla calls the current variant Autopilot and is testing a more advanced version called Full Self-Driving. The California Department of Motor Vehicles found that Tesla gives the impression that the cars can do much more independently than is actually possible.

According to the government department, Tesla violated California law with its “false or misleading” statements. Autopilot has been under a magnifying glass for some time for other reasons as well. The US federal regulator NHTSA is investigating several accidents involving Teslas in which the self-driving functions of those cars were on. These include accidents where the Teslas crashed into parked emergency responders’ vehicles.

However, the Tesla CEO insists that self-driving cars are safer than cars driven by humans. According to him, Autopilot is crucial to Tesla’s future.

Musk and his lawyer Alex Spiro could not be reached for comment, according to Bloomberg news agency. The SEC declined to comment on the matter.

The billionaire has been fighting a legal battle with the SEC for years over a case related to a tweet from 2018 in which Musk said he was thinking about taking Tesla private and that he had the financing in place. According to the regulator, he misled investors with this.

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