“To be clear, it is not,” the statement said. “Center for Auto Safety and Consumer Watchdog warned that Tesla’s representations of its Autopilot feature continue to violate Section 5 of the FTC Act, as well as similar state statutes.”
The release refers to a fatal accident in March, in which a Tesla Model 3 collided with a semitrailer 10 seconds after the Autopilot system was engaged.
A survey by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found almost half of consumer participants thought it would be safe to take one’s hands off the wheel while using Tesla’s Autopilot system.
“New active safety features built on our Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) hardware and software suite contributed to this achievement,” Tesla stated in its second-quarter update.
Autopilot “is not intended to be hands free,” IIHS President David Harkey told Automotive News in an interview in June. “Even though Tesla makes that very clear in the manual, that message is not being conveyed to all users.”
“What is particularly sad here is that instead of believing in the advanced cruise control technology the company has developed Tesla continues to make unsupportable claims that seem intended to deceive and certainly put people’s lives in danger,” Jason Levine, director of the Center for Auto Safety, wrote in an email to Automotive News.