Tesla is hit with a contemporary 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 checklist.
In Australia, legislation companies Woodsford and JGA Saddler organized a category motion within the Federal Court docket of Australia in opposition to Tesla Motors Australia Pty Ltd (Tesla Australia) and Tesla, Inc. (Tesla US) “alleging that Tesla Australia marketed and offered motor automobiles manufactured by Tesla US that have been faulty.”
The companies are at present recruiting individuals who bought or leased a Tesla Mannequin 3 or Y car in Australia between Might 2021 and February 2025.
They’re going after Tesla over three particular points. In relation to the alleged defect, they’re specializing in the phantom breaking points when utilizing Tesla’s FSD and Autopilot options:
Tesla automobiles have the propensity to autonomously interact computerized emergency braking abruptly in inappropriate circumstances, resulting in a threat of collisions.
One other focus of the lawsuit is the discrepancy between the marketed and actual vary in its automobiles:
They lack the flexibility to attain, or come near attaining, the marketed most vary or the vary displayed on the car’s dashboard when the battery degree is bigger than 50%.
Lastly, the lawsuit can also be going after Tesla for claiming that each one its automobiles produced since 2016 have the {hardware} able to self-driving:
Regardless of statements or representations on the contrary, the {hardware} on Tesla automobiles 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) won’t be able to unsupervised self-driving.
It’s the primary recognized lawsuit about this difficulty for the reason that CEO admitted the scenario.
Tesla has already been having points promoting automobiles 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 might count on to see plenty of these lawsuits pop up in opposition to 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 bundle, and that’s sufficient for his followers, however I doubt it’s going to maintain in courtroom.
The way in which I see it, Tesla used the declare that “all automobiles produced since 2016 have the {hardware} able to self-driving” to see these automobiles whether or not or not individuals purchased the self-driving software program bundle. Consumers who believed Tesla’s declare anticipated their automobiles to carry higher worth due to that, and it by no means occurred.
Tesla might very effectively must compensate each single one that purchased automobiles from them.
