California DMV Rules Tesla Misled Drivers With Autopilot Claims
A landmark state decision targets Tesla’s Autopilot branding and forces a pivot to supervised self-driving language.
Summary
- The California DMV officially ruled that Tesla violated state law by misleadingly marketing its “Autopilot” and “Full Self-Driving” (FSD) features as more autonomous than their actual Level 2 status
- Tesla faces a 30-day suspension of its dealer license in its largest US market, though the penalty is currently stayed for 60 days to give the company time to correct or clarify its advertising language
- While Tesla has already begun rebranding its premium software to “Full Self-Driving (Supervised),” regulators maintain that a sales ban remains a possibility if the company fails to fully align its marketing with the system’s legal limitations
California’s DMV has officially found Tesla in violation of state law for marketing Autopilot and Full Self-Driving as if they were closer to true autonomy than Level 2 driver-assist. A landmark administrative ruling says the branding misleads everyday drivers about what the cars can actually do.
The DMV adopted a judge’s recommendation that Tesla face a 30-day suspension of its dealer license in California, but stayed the hit. The agency is giving the brand 60 days to strip or clarify Autopilot language before pulling the trigger on a sales halt in its biggest US market. In its decision, the regulator points to Tesla’s own past wording that promised trips “with no action required by the person in the driver’s seat,” even though the tech has always legally remained driver-assistance, not autonomy. That disconnect now sits at the center of the fight over how far hype can go in defining self-driving.
At the same time, Tesla has already started to quietly reframe its pitch. The company’s premium package is now branded Full Self-Driving (Supervised), with official copy stressing that current features “require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous.” That is a big tonal pivot from years of futuristic robotaxi promises.
Tesla isn’t exactly backing down in public. On X, its North America account dismissed the ruling as a “consumer protection” skirmish, insisting sales will “continue uninterrupted” even as regulators say a ban is loaded and ready if the language doesn’t change. For culture watchers and investors, this clash is the purest expression yet of the tension at Tesla’s core. The brand is selling a robotaxi future, but its flagship software is still legally framed as supervised assistance. California just forced that contradiction into the spotlight, and whatever name Autopilot wears next will signal how hard regulators plan to police the self-driving story.
