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Tesla faces trouble in California
Photo: Ding Ting / XinHua / picture alliance / dpa
The California vehicle authority DMV accuses the electric car maker Tesla of misleading consumers about the autopilot system in its vehicles.
As first reported by the "Los Angeles Times", the authority has therefore filed a lawsuit against the company of tech billionaire Elon Musk.
According to the report, Tesla made statements in its advertising that were “false or misleading and not based on fact,” according to the lawsuit filed at the end of July.
Altogether there are two submissions from the California Vehicle Authority, they can be found here and here.
The authority accuses Tesla of presenting its driver assistance systems better than they actually are.
To date, Tesla cars have not functioned "as autonomous vehicles," according to the agency.
According to the report, if the lawsuit succeeds, it could have serious consequences for the company, including revoking the licenses that allow Tesla to manufacture and sell its cars in California.
According to the report, the authority only wants to use the lawsuit to ensure that the car manufacturer has to provide its customers with more detailed information.
As the news site CNBC writes, the company now has fifteen days to comment before the administrative court.
Tesla boss Musk said in June how important self-driving cars are for his company.
Without autopilot, the value of Tesla tends to be “near zero”.
In the past, accidents involving Teslas with autopilot had repeatedly made headlines.
According to a NHTSA report released in June, autopilot-controlled Teslas were involved in 273 accidents in the United States in a year.
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