Fresh lawsuits claim Tesla “deceptively and misleadingly” marketing the Autopilot and “Full Self-Driving” features.
Last week, attorneys for Burlingame-based Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, LLP filed a class-action lawsuit against Tesla in the US District Court in San Francisco on behalf of a Tesla owner named Briggs Matsko, of Rancho Murieta, CA, who paid $5,000 to activate the “Enhanced Autopilot” option on his 2018 Tesla Model X — an option whose cost has crept up to $15,000 in recent weeks. Matsko is seeking class-action status for the lawsuit, which would effectively “rope in” everyone who has paid Tesla for the option, believing that it would enable their cars to, you know, fully drive themselves.
Matsko’s lawsuit is distinct from another class-action lawsuit the company is facing for, what that suit calls, “phantom braking incidents,” which have (allegedly) plagued the Autopilot and cruise control features on Tesla cars for years.
For their part, some of the more reliable Tesla fans have suggested that Matsko’s lawsuits aren’t likely to generate a cash settlement. The tweet, below, from Whole Mars Catalog effectively sums up what seems to be a widely-held opinion.
So some dude named Briggs Matsko who bought Enhanced Autopilot on his 2018 Model X is suing Tesla for its Autopilot / FSD claims.
— Whole Mars Catalog (@WholeMarsBlog) September 14, 2022
Tesla covered their ass pretty well in the fine print so he will most likely lose. Tesla doesn’t settle either, they will litigate. @elonmusk
In fairness, this America — and every American has the God-given right to sue every other American if they believe they’ve been wronged, but the fact that there is a lawsuit doesn’t mean that anyone has, in fact, been wronged. This particular lawsuit, however, has what (to us) seems like some pretty strong evidence supporting it, in the form of Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s own tweets about the pricey option.
In addition to the names “Autopilot,” and “Full Self Driving,” Musk’s public statements seem to have specifically promised capabilities that the systems simply haven’t been able to deliver upon. Consider that Elon told the Verge, “Ultimately you’ll be able to summon your car anywhere … your car can get to you … I think that within two years, you’ll be able to summon your car from across the country,” back in 2016.
As of 2022, self-driving Tesla cars still seem to have trouble navigating large, stationary aircraft, moving children, and parked emergency vehicles — but don’t take our word for any of that. Watch the videos, below, then let us know what you think of Matsko’s lawsuit in the comments section at the bottom of the page.
“Best of” Tesla FSD Compilation
