Tesla has filed a lawsuit towards the California Division of Motor Automobiles searching for to reverse the executive ruling that discovered the automaker engaged in false promoting with its “Autopilot” and “Full Self-Driving” advertising.
The transfer comes simply days after Tesla complied with the DMV’s calls for to wash up its advertising language — elevating the query of why the corporate is combating a ruling it already capitulated to.
The lawsuit
In a criticism dated February 13, Tesla’s attorneys alleged that the DMV “wrongfully and baselessly” labeled the automaker a “false advertiser” for its prior use of the phrases Autopilot and Full Self-Driving. Tesla argues that the DMV by no means proved customers had been really confused about whether or not its automobiles had been protected to drive with no human on the wheel.
Tesla additionally made a exceptional argument: that the DMV had recognized about its use of “Autopilot” branding since 2014 and “Full Self-Driving” since 2016, primarily claiming a statute of limitations on deceptive the general public. That is the identical argument Tesla tried in 2023, the concept that it had been mendacity for thus lengthy that it ought to be allowed to maintain going.
Background: How we acquired right here
This lawsuit is the most recent chapter in a years-long saga between Tesla and the California DMV. The company first launched its investigation in 2021 after rising considerations that Tesla was misrepresenting the capabilities of its driver-assistance programs.
After a five-day listening to in 2025, an administrative regulation decide sided with the DMV. The December 2025 ruling discovered that Tesla’s use of “Autopilot” follows what the courtroom known as “a protracted however illegal custom” of utilizing ambiguity to mislead customers. On “Full Self-Driving,” the courtroom was even harsher, ruling that the title is “really, unambiguously false and counterfactual.”
The DMV gave Tesla 60 days to repair its advertising or face a 30-day suspension of its vendor and producer licenses, which might have briefly halted Tesla’s means to promote or construct automobiles within the state.
Tesla complied — then sued
Right here is the place issues get contradictory. By February 17, the DMV confirmed that Tesla had taken applicable corrective motion and no license suspension can be needed.
Tesla killed Autopilot as a standalone product within the U.S. and Canada in January, added the “(Supervised)” qualifier to “Full Self-Driving,” and moved FSD to a subscription-only mannequin at $99 per thirty days, eliminating the $8,000 one-time buy possibility.
The compliance deadline of February 14 conveniently coincided with Tesla’s resolution to finish direct FSD gross sales — a transfer that additionally occurred to detach the corporate from its long-standing promise that automobiles bought with FSD would finally obtain unsupervised self-driving functionality.
Now, regardless of complying with each DMV demand, Tesla needs the “false advertiser” label faraway from its document. The corporate is banking its total future on robotaxis and autonomous driving, and a proper discovering that it lied about “Full Self-Driving” for practically a decade shouldn’t be precisely useful for that narrative.
Mounting authorized strain
This lawsuit doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Tesla is going through an avalanche of authorized penalties tied to its autonomous driving claims. Simply final week, a federal decide upheld the historic $243 million verdict towards Tesla in a deadly Autopilot crash case, the primary main plaintiff victory in an Autopilot wrongful loss of life go well with. Tesla had rejected a $60 million settlement provide earlier than that trial. Since that August 2025 verdict, Tesla has quietly settled at the very least 4 further Autopilot crash lawsuits somewhat than danger extra jury selections.
The money quantities of these settlements are nonetheless unknown.
In the meantime, NHTSA launched a broad investigation in October 2025 into 2.88 million Tesla automobiles after connecting 58 incidents to FSD, together with 14 crashes and 23 accidents. The investigation particularly focuses on FSD working purple lights and driving into opposing lanes of site visitors.
Electrek’s Take
The audacity of this lawsuit is exceptional. Tesla spent practically a decade promoting driver-assistance software program beneath the title “Full Self-Driving” regardless of that software program by no means making any Tesla able to driving itself.
A courtroom reviewed the proof and concluded Tesla’s advertising was “unambiguously false and counterfactual.” Tesla then complied with each corrective measure the DMV required, and is now suing to fake none of it occurred.
The motivation is clear. Tesla advised traders it has 1.1 million “FSD subscribers” and its total valuation thesis rests on turning into a robotaxi firm. A proper, on-the-record discovering that the corporate engaged in false promoting about self-driving straight undermines that pitch. It additionally creates critical legal responsibility publicity within the rising pile of Autopilot crash lawsuits.
However suing to erase a ruling you already complied with doesn’t change the underlying details. The courtroom discovered the promoting was false. Tesla modified its advertising as a result of the promoting was false. Eradicating the label doesn’t take away the last decade of deceptive prospects, and the $243 million verdict that simply survived Tesla’s problem suggests juries agree.
As for the argument that drivers weren’t misled, that very jury verdict says in any other case.
Moreover, Tesla’s personal poor protection within the DMV case additionally confirmed it. Tesla employed a polling professional to current its case and its personal ballot, designed to make Tesla look pretty much as good as doable, confirmed that roughly a 3rd of patrons had been at the very least partly confused by the capabilities of the programs primarily based on their names.
Tesla needs every part. It needs to have the ability to promote its driver help programs as autonomous whereas having them regulated as driver help programs.
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