The U.S. Department of Justice leads an ongoing investigation into Tesla based on alleged customer misinformation. The advertising statements released by the company allegedly exaggerate its cars’ self-driving capabilities, which may have led to a number of road incidents and even fatalities.
The criminal probe has been ongoing since last year, and it is now official that multiple traffic incidents with fatalities are under close scrutiny. Should the autopilot tech be found involved, fines or criminal charges may follow.
Even now, an ad on the Tesla website claims that the only reason the driver must stay behind the steering wheel at all times is that it is illegal not to. Other than that, the car is supposedly fully able to drive itself. The text that follows admits that the feature is meant to assist the human driver instead of replacing them, but by the time you get to it, the wrong message is already sent.
A recent study has shown that U.S. residents often treat cars with feature-limited driving aids as capable of fully autonomous driving. They often take risks and allow themselves to be distracted while behind the steering wheel, just because they prefer to believe in their cars being smart enough. Needless to say, this is both dangerous and irresponsible.