Tesla and Musk avoid lawsuit over self-driving technology

Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk have won a significant court case. A lawsuit accusing them of defrauding shareholders by making exaggerated claims about the effectiveness and safety of self-driving technology has been dismissed. US District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin in San Francisco ruled that shareholders had not made a convincing case that Tesla and Musk should be held accountable for allegedly misleading promises about the technology’s superiority over human driving, which proved to be “fraught with safety problems.” ‘ have proven and lead to inattention. Tesla vehicles come with ‘Autopilot’ software designed to improve self-driving capabilities, and the company has also sold upgrades to ‘Full Self Driving’ software. Martinez-Olguin noted that some of Tesla and Musk’s controversial statements were not necessarily false, while others could be justified because they targeted future expectations of the technology. The assessment that Musk’s close management of the company did not mean he knew more than he let on also played a role in the decision. The judge also found that his nearly $34 billion profit from selling Tesla shares between February 2019 and February 2023 did not prove that he acted at the expense of other shareholders. Shareholders argued that Musk, the world’s richest person, made about $39.4 billion from those stock sales, a sum roughly equal to Vermont’s gross domestic product. Neither the plaintiffs’ lawyers nor Tesla itself immediately responded to requests for comment. The judge dismissed the lawsuit without prejudice, meaning shareholders can refile it. Tesla remains under investigation by the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as the California Department of Motor Vehicles, regarding its statements about self-driving technology.