Tesla dodges 30-day suspension in California after removing Autopilot

The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has decided not to suspend Tesla’s sales and manufacturing licenses for 30 days after the company ceased using the term “Autopilot” in its vehicle marketing within the state. This resolution ends a nearly three-year-long case initiated in November 2023, when the DMV accused Tesla of deceptive marketing practices by promoting its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) systems in ways that overstated their capabilities. The DMV argued that these terms misled consumers about the actual functionality of Tesla’s advanced driver assistance systems. Tesla had already modified its marketing language by replacing “Full Self-Driving Capability” with “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)” to emphasize the need for driver supervision. However, it initially retained the “Autopilot” term, prompting the DMV to seek a 30-day suspension through an administrative law judge, who ruled in favor of the DMV in December 2023. After being given 60 days to comply,