Tesla is hit with a recent class motion lawsuit concerning the efficiency and claims of its self-driving and Autopilot techniques in addition to its “{hardware} 3 pc.”
The automaker is already going through dozens of lawsuits over its self-driving claims, crashes utilizing superior driver help techniques, alledged breaches of fiduciary duties from its CEO and board members, however now ou can add one other one to the record.
In Australia, regulation corporations Woodsford and JGA Saddler organized a category motion within the Federal Court docket of Australia towards Tesla Motors Australia Pty Ltd (Tesla Australia) and Tesla, Inc. (Tesla US) “alleging that Tesla Australia marketed and offered motor autos manufactured by Tesla US that have been faulty.”
The corporations are at the moment recruiting individuals who bought or leased a Tesla Mannequin 3 or Y automobile in Australia between Could 2021 and February 2025.
They’re going after Tesla over three particular points. With regards to the alleged defect, they’re specializing in the phantom breaking points when utilizing Tesla’s FSD and Autopilot options:
Tesla autos have the propensity to autonomously have interaction computerized emergency braking abruptly in inappropriate circumstances, resulting in a danger of collisions.
One other focus of the lawsuit is the discrepancy between the marketed and actual vary in its autos:
They lack the flexibility to attain, or come near attaining, the marketed most vary or the vary displayed on the automobile’s dashboard when the battery stage is larger than 50%.
Lastly, the lawsuit can also be going after Tesla for claiming that every one its autos produced since 2016 have the {hardware} able to self-driving:
Regardless of statements or representations on the contrary, the {hardware} on Tesla autos is incapable of supporting totally autonomous or near autonomous driving.
This lawsuit comes after CEO Elon Musk lastly just lately admitted that its {Hardware} 3 self-driving pc (HW3) is not going to be able to unsupervised self-driving.
It’s the primary identified lawsuit about this concern because the CEO admitted the state of affairs.
Tesla has already been having points promoting autos in Australia just lately. Tesla’s gross sales have been down 17% within the nation final yr and 33% within the first month of 2025.
Electrek’s Take
I’d count on to see a whole lot of these lawsuits pop up towards Tesla within the coming months, particularly about HW3 now that Elon admitted that it gained’t be able to unsupervised self-driving as promised.
He did say that Tesla would supply retrofits for individuals who purchased the FSD package deal, and that’s sufficient for his followers, however I doubt it would maintain in court docket.
The way in which I see it, Tesla used the declare that “all vehicles produced since 2016 have the {hardware} able to self-driving” to see these autos whether or not or not individuals purchased the self-driving software program package deal. Consumers who believed Tesla’s declare anticipated their vehicles to carry higher worth due to that, and it by no means occurred.
Tesla might very properly must compensate each single one that purchased autos from them.
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