Tesla Faces Multinational Class-Action Lawsuit Over Unfulfilled Autopilot Promises

Multiple Tesla owners around the world have filed lawsuits accusing the company of false advertising regarding its "Full Self-Driving" (FSD) feature. In 2017, U.S. owner Tom LoSavio paid over $100,000 for a Model S and an additional $8,000 for the FSD package, yet the feature has still not delivered full self-driving capability. He is serving as lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit seeking refunds and an injunction to prevent Tesla from continuing to market the system as autonomous. Similar legal actions have now spread to Europe and Australia. Dutch owner Misha Siegertmans paid €6,400 for the FSD package in 2019 but has never been able to use it due to local regulations and technical limitations. Law firms in Australia have also launched related class-action proceedings. One key point of contention is hardware compatibility. Tesla has repeatedly upgraded its onboard computing platform, rendering earlier vehicle models unable to run the latest FSD software. Although the company initially promised free hardware upgrades for older vehicles, it later reversed course, stating such upgrades would only proceed once the software was sufficiently mature. Currently, the newest FSD version supports only vehicles equipped with the latest hardware, effectively excluding owners of older models. Although Tesla recently launched a robotaxi service in Austin and plans to introduce a steering-wheel-free Cybercab model, it has yet to provide a clear upgrade path for existing older vehicles to access the latest FSD capabilities.