Tesla is being investigated for securities or wire fraud for "Full Self Driving" claims

Tesla's "Full Self Driving" isn't that, but somehow the company has gotten away with using a highly misleading name for years. That may not continue for much longer. According to a new exclusive report from Reuters, US prosecutors are now examining whether Tesla committed securities or wire fraud by misleading investors and consumers about its EVs' self-driving abilities (or rather, the lack thereof).

The US Justice Department is examining statements by Tesla and CEO Elon Musk regarding "Full Self Driving", statements that may have implied the cars can drive themselves.

That, of course, doesn't really get to the meat of the issue, so to speak - which is the name itself, not various claims associated with it. If you call something "butter" that isn't butter, you're instantly in trouble, but apparently calling something "self driving" when it isn't is pretty much fine, and not just in the US, but in the otherwise notoriously litigious against corporations EU as well.

Anyway, the Justice Department investigators are exploring whether Tesla committed wire fraud, which involves deception in interstate communications, by misleading consumers about its driver assistance systems, and examining whether Tesla may have committed securities fraud by deceiving investors. On that note, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is apparently also investigating Tesla's representations about driver assistance systems to investors.

This probe could result in criminal charges, civil sanctions, or no action whatsoever, so it's still very early days. According to sources quoted by Reuters in its report, the prosecutors are "far from deciding how to proceed", in part because they are now sifting through "voluminous documents" that Tesla provided in response to subpoenas.

Elon Musk has, for years, falsely promised Teslas would actually be "Full Self Driving", but according to Tesla's lawyers in a 2022 court filing, "mere failure to realize a long-term, aspirational goal is not fraud", once again dancing around the issue of the name "Full Self Driving" as everyone has been doing since it was introduced.

If a company would sell you a smartphone chassis as a "smartphone" and then call it an "aspirational goal" for the thing to one day become a full smartphone, the story would probably be quite different. But so far Tesla has always gotten a pass, for reasons that aren't very clear.

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