German Court Bans Tesla from Advertising Autopilot

A Munich court ruled that Tesla misled consumers regarding the capabilities of Autopilot.

A suit brought on by the non-profit Center for Protection Against Unfair Competition said Tesla promised customers more than it could actually deliver.

The court banned Tesla Germany from including “full potential for autonomous driving” and “autopilot inclusive” in its advertising materials at this time, including on its website where it sells the cars, according to Reuters.

The court called Tesla’s statements misleading, adding that the average buyer might be given the impression that the car could drive without human intervention, Reuters reported.

The court said Tesla’s promised Level 5 fully autonomous driving by the end of 2019, meaning the car does not require human intervention. In reality, Autopilot remains a Level 2 system on the SAE scale of autonomy.

“Since autopiloted and autonomous driving at level 5 is currently neither legally permissible nor technically possible for the vehicle in question, Tesla must also adhere to the rules of the game and must not make false advertising promises,” Dr. Andreas Ottofülling, an attorney for the Wettbewerbszentrale, said in a release.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

...and yet Tesla stock closed at $1,500 / share on Friday, up only 300% since March. He must have a lot of folks convinced there's a valid business model here somewhere.

I'm not sure I'd use the stock market as a barometer when it's so disconnected from reality in general.

I cashed out about 25% of my investments during late Feb when things were starting to look bad, and then stocks tanked.

Nothing since that moment has made any sense to me. I've kept that money out because I can't sense of anything. I've never been a particularly savvy investor, but I've never been so "WTF do I do?".

Some of the high valuation of Tesla might be because it's the only game in town, and there seems to a lot of new investors trying to capitalize on the volatility of Covid. The very thing that has me on the sidelines have them in the game.

As to Tesla's business model I think one look at it from the perspective that Tesla has both sides of autonomous driving covered.

If Tesla completely fails with autonomous driving then what difference does it really make? No one is anyone close to offering autonomous driving beyond a geofenced area. Tesla can always rejoin the group of car companies that buy a third party solution like MobileEye.

Tesla has something no other car company has, and that's an end-to-end solution that covers everything from the energy that powers the vehicle to the insurance itself. It's perfectly situated to sell the car as a service.

It's also gone international where there is a plant in China, and a plant that's going to open in Germany. Those are extremely important as their both countries where its much easier to sell their if they're made locally. This also allows them to build specific models in Germany, and then import them into the US. That allows them to build more Models.

 

[banned-66611]

The problem is that the plaintiffs influenced the UN rules that the EU castrated the european version of FSD with. So first strongarm Tesla to render its software almost useless the sue them for it. In what world is that fair competition ?

Even if that were true it has nothing to do with what I said. Are they going to release robotaxi in the next 5 months? They haven't demonstrated anything close to what it would require to make it work.

Anyway even if they did somehow get it working tomorrow it would still take a long time for it to be certified and for laws to be changed to allow it to be used in Germany, so selling it as an imminent upgrade to be delivered in reasonable time is not allowed because they can't guarantee that.

 

[Collier007]

I'm not sure I'd use the stock market as a barometer when it's so disconnected from reality in general.

I cashed out about 25% of my investments during late Feb when things were starting to look bad, and then stocks tanked.

Nothing since that moment has made any sense to me. I've kept that money out because I can't sense of anything. I've never been a particularly savvy investor, but I've never been so "WTF do I do?".

Some of the high valuation of Tesla might be because it's the only game in town, and there seems to a lot of new investors trying to capitalize on the volatility of Covid. The very thing that has me on the sidelines have them in the game.

As to Tesla's business model I think one look at it from the perspective that Tesla has both sides of autonomous driving covered.

If Tesla completely fails with autonomous driving then what difference does it really make? No one is anyone close to offering autonomous driving beyond a geofenced area. Tesla can always rejoin the group of car companies that buy a third party solution like MobileEye.

Tesla has something no other car company has, and that's an end-to-end solution that covers everything from the energy that powers the vehicle to the insurance itself. It's perfectly situated to sell the car as a service.

It's also gone international where there is a plant in China, and a plant that's going to open in Germany. Those are extremely important as their both countries where its much easier to sell their if they're made locally. This also allows them to build specific models in Germany, and then import them into the US. That allows them to build more Models.

Sounds like you shouldn’t be managing your own money....

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

Sounds like you shouldn’t be managing your own money....

I would argue about this, but I have a $10K E-Bike.

So I'm just gonna let it slide.

 

[Just a Reader]

The only real surprise is that it took so long. Years ago, when they first introduced Autopilot, their German website claimed that after some software upgrades the car would drive "fully autonomously" on the motorway (yes, it was that explicit). After a while the text was exchanged against one with a more defensible claim. Whether they did so because someone had realized that there was no way that their first claim would stand up in court or because they had received a lawyer's cease and desist letter I obviously don't know.

 

[diplomat33]

Germany totally nerfed Smart Summon. Basically, you have to be within 6 meters of your car and can only use it up to a max of 20 meters away.

 

[Mardak]

Elon Musk comments on this German court decision with Automotive News interview Part 3 around 7:45 time mark:
DAILY DRIVE PODCAST: August 4, 2020 | One-on-one with Elon Musk (Part 3): Autopilot criticism is 'idiotic'

Basically people are quite paranoid of trying out Autopilot even with its current name, and that experience is also reinforced with all the warnings, beeping, flashing etc.