Tesla’s ‘Fully Self-Driving’ Vehicles Incapable of Safe, Autonomous Driving, Class Action Lawsuit Claims

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A proposed class action lawsuit alleges that Tesla has deceptively marketed vehicles equipped with Tesla Hardware 1, 2, 2.5 and 3 sensors and computer systems as capable of fully autonomous driving, despite the cars lacking the necessary hardware.

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The 51-page Tesla lawsuit claims that the automaker has deceptively and misleadingly promised that its Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS) in certain vehicles with Tesla Hardware 1, 2, 2.5 or 3 configurations are equipped with the necessary software and hardware components to support fully autonomous driving, including “coast-to-coast” trips.

In truth, the class action suit says, the vehicles at issue are incapable of safely and reliably traveling without human intervention, with the defendants’ promises of fully autonomous driving “proven false time and time again.”

The false advertising lawsuit says that Tesla and CEO Elon Musk have claimed since 2016 that all Tesla vehicles are equipped with the hardware needed for fully self-driving (FSD) capability, referred to as “Autopilot,” “Enhanced Autopilot” and “Full Self-Driving Capabilities,” with a safety level apparently “substantially greater” than that of a human driver.

However, the filing says that purportedly self-driving Teslas have been found to engage in “unusual and unsafe” actions, such as suddenly stopping at green lights, driving through stop signs, moving erratically “like a drunken or distracted driver,” and routinely failing to avoid collisions with objects in the roadway.

The complaint shares that SAE International, a U.S.-based standards development organization, provides a taxonomy of autonomous driving systems, ranging from no automation (SAE Level 0) to full driving automation with zero human supervision or interaction (SAE Level 5). The case says Tesla and Musk have repeatedly assured consumers that Tesla vehicles are already outfitted with the necessary hardware to “rapidly” advance to SAE Level 4 or 5.

To the contrary, the case says, Tesla’s technology has “never” advanced beyond SAE Level 2, which requires constant human supervision and continual input from the driver to steer, brake, or accelerate.

The case says that in 2020, Musk claimed that it was “certain” that fully self-driving vehicles would be ready “this year,” evangelizing that the roads would soon be full of FSD-enabled “Robotaxis.” On a December 2021 earnings call, the suit continues, Musk confirmed that fully self-driving Tesla vehicles could be achieved with a mere software update.

The filing says that Musk continued to “confirm or imply” for several years thereafter that all Tesla vehicles simply needed a complementary software upgrade to achieve FSD capabilities.

However, after the release of Hardware 4 in January 2023, Musk seemingly confirmed in a January 2025 earnings call that vehicles with Hardware 1, 2, 2.5 and 3 are “incapable” of achieving the promised FSD capability, in direct contradiction to years of repeated, pervasive claims otherwise. The case says that Tesla “finally admitted the truth” on April 22, 2026, when Musk more directly confirmed in a highly publicized statement that “Hardware 3 simply does not have the capability to achieve unsupervised FSD.”

According to the class action suit, consumers have paid a significant price premium for vehicles they reasonably believed, based on years of Tesla marketing, were capable of fully autonomous driving, with a full FSD package add-on commanding up to an additional $15,000 for each purchase.   

The lawsuit emphasizes the human cost of Tesla and Musk’s allegedly misleading representations, with many people having been injured or killed because of malfunctions of the autonomous driving features. Some of the fatal crashes are “eerily similar,” such as two separate instances where Tesla drivers were killed after their vehicles failed to recognize a tractor-trailer and subsequently hit and went under the truck, the case conveys.

One publication, Electrek, described Tesla’s FSD Beta software as inadequate despite years of development and testing, stressing that FSD Beta’s “decision-making is still the equivalent of a 14-year-old who has been learning to drive for the last week and sometimes appears to consume hard drugs.”

The Tesla class action lawsuit looks to cover all individuals who purchased or leased from Tesla, Inc. (or any entity it directly or indirectly owns or controls), a Tesla vehicle sold with Tesla’s Hardware 1, 2, 2.5 or 3 configurations, and paid a separate amount, either through purchase or subscription, for the Full Self-Driving technology package at any time from May 19, 2017 to the present, and who either purchased or leased that vehicle in the United States (except in California) or who currently reside in the United States (except in California), who opted out of Tesla’s arbitration agreement.

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