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The US Department of Justice has requested documents from Tesla regarding Autopilot and “Full Self-Driving” features, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published Tuesday.
In the filing, which was reported by several media outlets, Tesla confirmed that the Justice Department had requested the documents, but indicated it did not anticipate prosecution.
“To our knowledge, no government agency in its ongoing investigation has concluded that wrongdoing occurred,” Tesla said in the filing.
Tesla Model X 2023 – Courtesy of Tesla, Inc.
Tesla has come under fire several times over the years for its driver assistance features, most notably “Full Self-Driving” which, despite its name, does not allow cars to drive themselves. The head of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in 2021 called the label “misleading and irresponsible”, and California deemed it illegal.
Autopilot is a standard Tesla driver assistance feature and is basically adaptive cruise control that can also steer itself in a lane. “Full Self-Driving” adds functionality, including the ability to automatically overtake slower vehicles, automatically react to traffic lights and stop signs, and handle multiple parking situations. It also includes Smart Summon, which brings the car to the driver in the parking lot, as long as the driver keeps the vehicle in view.
Tesla began offering “Full Self-Driving” as a hardware package in 2016, claiming later software updates would unlock true self-driving capabilities. CEO Elon Musk said at the time that he expected Tesla to be able to travel from Los Angeles to New York “without needing a single touch” of the steering wheel as early as 2017.
That never happened, although Tesla had begun offering the system in unfinished “Beta” form to all customers (only available to select customers initially), and continued to increase its price. This feature cost $5,000 when it launched in 2016, but Tesla increased the price to $10,000 in 2020, $12,000 in 2022, and finally $15,000 later in the year. Subscription options are also added in 2021.
Disgruntled Tesla owners filed a class action lawsuit against the automaker in September 2022 for failing to deliver on its “Full Self-Driving” promise. Tesla’s lawyers later reportedly argued that the failure to deliver the self-driving car was not fraud, and called for the lawsuit to be dropped.
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