So, here’s the deal: a federal judge in San Francisco just gave Tesla owners the green light to sue the company — and Elon Musk himself — over claims that their cars could basically drive themselves. The catch? Those promises go all the way back to 2016. Yep, this is about nine years of “almost there, guys” when it comes to self-driving Teslas.
Back in 2016, Musk stood up and declared that every Tesla rolling off the line was already packed with all the hardware it would ever need to drive itself one day. Cameras, sensors, radar — the whole “future robot car” starter pack. He said once the software caught up, these cars would hit Level 5 autonomy — which is tech-speak for “you can literally take a nap while the car does all the work.” Spoiler alert: that was not true then, and it’s still not true today.
See, Musk has a bit of a reputation for… let’s call it “enthusiastic exaggeration.” He’s promised hyperloops, solar rooftops, trillion-dollar budget hacks powered by Dogecoin — you name it. Usually, people just shrug it off. But now? It’s starting to sting Tesla. The company’s EV sales dropped 13% in the first half of 2025, and lawsuits are piling up like unread emails.
Just this month in Miami, a jury decided Tesla was partly responsible for a fatal 2019 crash involving its Autopilot system, and slapped the company with a $243 million penalty. Ouch. On top of that, California’s DMV is threatening to block Tesla from selling cars in the state if it’s proven they exaggerated what their cars can do. That’s bad news when California is your biggest market.
And while Musk keeps talking about Tesla’s big future in robotaxis, here’s the awkward truth: there are already robotaxis out there right now — in multiple cities — safely carting people around. None of them are Teslas. Tesla’s “robotaxi pilot” in Austin still has human safety drivers up front and even remote operators watching from afar, ready to jump in when things get dicey. Like, say, avoiding trains.
Meanwhile, other companies like Waymo (owned by Google’s parent company) are actually running robotaxi services for paying customers in five U.S. cities, with more on the way. So Tesla’s “we’ll catch up because we’re cheaper” argument is starting to sound a lot like “we’ll win this race even though we’re not moving yet.”
The bigger issue here isn’t just money — it’s trust. Musk once bragged Tesla would have a million robotaxis on the road by 2020. That… did not happen. He also said Teslas would basically make their owners money, earning up to $30,000 a year as mini-Ubers in a Tesla-run fleet. Instead, used Teslas are actually losing value faster than any other car brand this year. Talk about a bad investment.
And when Tesla’s lawyers defend Musk by calling his statements “puffery” (a fancy word for “eh, we didn’t really mean it”), it’s not a great look. Especially since safety is on the line. Critics point out that dozens of deaths have been linked to Autopilot and Full Self-Driving. Courts are starting to agree that if you hype your cars as self-driving, you’d better back it up with actual proof.
Tesla’s stock has already taken a hit this year, down about 20%. And while Musk can still spin a good story about the future, judges, juries, and regulators aren’t buying it anymore.