Tesla and Elon Musk are being sued by shareholders over misleading self driving claims.
According to the report, Musk and Tesla were sued on Monday, February 27th, with the main reason being the company overstating the effectiveness and safety of Tesla vehicles’ Autopilot and Full Self-Driving tech.
The class action was filed in a San Francisco federal court, with the shareholders saying that the company has defrauded them over the course of the past four years. The technologies in question are suspected as a possible cause of fatal crashes, and capable of causing “a serious risk of accident and injury.”
The shareholders, along with believing in the company’s vision, also want to make money on their investment. According to the suit, the shareholders claim that Tesla’s share price fell multiple times as the truth about the technologies became known, including after investigations by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and reports that the Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating Musk’s Autopilot claims.
A recent FSD bug caused the automobile company to recall over 362,000 vehicles. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the FSD bug “may” cause Tesla vehicles to crash. The NHTSA added that FSD allows Teslas to “exceed speed limits or travel through intersections in an unlawful or unpredictable manner increases the risk of a crash.” The vehicle could drive straight through an intersection while in a turn-only and enter an intersection with a stop sign without coming to a complete stop.
The recall caused Tesla’s shares to slide by 5.7 percent on Thursday, February 16th.
The lawsuit is led by shareholder Thomas Lamontagne with Tesla, Musk, Zachary J. Kirkhorn and Deepak Ahuja as the primary defendants. Lamontagne is seeking unspecified damages from Tesla for the February 19th, 2019 to February 17th, 2023 timeframe.
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Source: Reuters
