Tesla Banned From Calling Driver Assist “Full Self-Drive” In California
Will Malaysia and other countries follow suit?
Well everyone, 2022 is almost at an end and we all know what that means, here comes 2023. With a new year on the horizon, the world is introducing new laws and one of those new laws is in California and it states that Tesla is banned from advertising its vehicles as “fully-self-driving.” Will other countries do so as well?
So, this new law in California is a blanket law that affects every automaker that utilizes semi-automated driving technology and will go into effect in California on 1 January 2023. Since semi-autonomous driver assist and “full self-driving” are not the same, will Tesla face similar problems in other countries too?
Moreover, California governor Gavin Newsom signed the legislation in September 2022 for this law that will ban Tesla and other brands from advertising semi-autonomous driving for “fully self-driving.” The law dictates that automakers must clearly describe the limitations of any partial driving automation technology.
The reason this law applies particularly to Tesla is because the company states on its website that its cars’ “Full self-Driving” features require “active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous.” Clearly if active supervision is needed it cannot be “fully” self-driving, right?
Additionally, here in Malaysia we already know that the Tesla driver assistance technology is not “fully self-driving,” or at least most of us should. Yet, there are still many who will carelessly call this technology “fully autonomous” and I have even seen some online news portals state this as well.
However, Tesla’s driver assistance technology is only semi-autonomous, not fully. So while it may not seem like a big deal now, should laws like this come into effect in Malaysia, our general “tak kisah” attitude may just cause some unwanted problems so it is best to describe things using the correct terms.
On top of that, as far as we know, none of the other U.S states plan to pass this law too and as far as the rest of the world goes, well no other country has expressed any desire to pass laws like this either. Regardless, Tesla has not really ever advertised their cars as “fully self-driving” in Malaysia so the brand is safe here.
For anyone who was wondering the main element of the law that affects Tesla is below:-
“(b) A manufacturer or dealer shall not name any partial driving automation feature, or describe any partial driving automation feature in marketing materials, using language that implies or would otherwise lead a reasonable person to believe, that the feature allows the vehicle to function as an autonomous vehicle, as defined in Section 38750, or otherwise has functionality not actually included in the feature. A violation of this subdivision shall be considered a misleading advertisement for the purposes of Section 11713.”
California Senate Bill No. 1398
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