Tesla is hit with a contemporary class motion lawsuit in regards to the efficiency and claims of its self-driving and Autopilot programs 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 programs, 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 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 bought motor automobiles manufactured by Tesla US that had 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 automobiles have the propensity to autonomously have interaction automated 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 realize, or come near attaining, the marketed most vary or the vary displayed on the automobile’s dashboard when the battery degree is bigger than 50%.
Lastly, the lawsuit can 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 absolutely autonomous or near autonomous driving.
This lawsuit comes after CEO Elon Musk lastly not too long ago admitted that its {Hardware} 3 self-driving pc (HW3) won’t be able to unsupervised self-driving.
It’s the primary identified lawsuit about this situation for the reason that CEO admitted the scenario.
Tesla has already been having points promoting automobiles in Australia not too long ago. Tesla’s gross sales had 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 provide retrofits for individuals who purchased the FSD package deal, and that’s sufficient for his followers, however I doubt it’s going to maintain in court docket.
The best way 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 folks purchased the self-driving software program package deal. 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 who purchased automobiles from them.
FTC: We use earnings incomes auto affiliate hyperlinks. Extra.
