London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Jan 09, 2026

German court rules that Tesla misled consumers on Autopilot and Full Self Driving

German court rules that Tesla misled consumers on Autopilot and Full Self Driving

Tesla misled consumers on the abilities of its automated driving systems, a Munich court ruled on Tuesday. Tesla Germany is now banned from including “full potential for autonomous driving” and “Autopilot inclusive” in its advertising materials.
Tesla misled consumers on the abilities of its automated driving systems, a Munich court has ruled.

The Center for Protection Against Unfair Competition - a non-profit that filed the lawsuit - accused Tesla of promising customers more than it could actually deliver.

The court agreed with the fair competition watchdog, Wettbewerbszentrale, which is supported by industry associations, chambers and individual companies in several industries. They also banned Tesla Germany from including “full potential for autonomous driving” and “autopilot inclusive” in its advertising materials at this time, including on its website where it sells the cars.

Tesla can appeal the court ruling.

“A legal framework for autonomous inner-city driving doesn’t even exist yet in Germany,” Andreas Ottofuelling, a lawyer for the group, said in a press statement. “And other functions aren’t working yet as advertised.”

Tesla’s Autopilot is akin to the advanced driver-assistance systems featured in many cars on the market today. The Autopilot system helps the driver to automatically stay in their lane, and keep a safe distance from other vehicles, among other things. Autopilot is standard in Tesla vehicles today.

The electric car maker also sells a Full Self Driving package or “FSD” with more advanced features. In Germany, the company marketed its cars as “Autopilot inclusive,” with “full potential for autonomous driving.” Tesla vehicles, even those equipped with the company’s FSD package, require drivers to remain fully attentive, ready to take control of the car.

Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk have tried to describe and define “autonomous” in their own way.

Other automakers typically rely on the six levels of autonomous driving defined by SAE International to communicate about these emerging technologies. Level four automated driving, which allows a vehicle to perform all driving functions but only in certain conditions, is not yet sold by any automaker.

Musk started talking up the company’s Autopilot efforts in 2013. He said “generalized full autonomy” was in development in 2015. By 2016, Tesla told customers that all its cars in production would include full self-driving hardware. That hardware — known as Hardware 3.0 — did not arrive until the spring of 2019.

Although Tesla has been promising self-driving cars since 2016, it still hasn’t demonstrated the cross-country, hands-free drive Musk said would be possible by the end of 2017.

In April 2019, Musk said: “We expect to be feature complete in self-driving this year, and we expect to be confident enough from our standpoint to say that we think people do not need to touch the wheel and can look out the window sometime probably ... in the second quarter of next year.”

Musk said in a call with investors in May 2019 that Tesla expected to have 1 million vehicles on the road by the end of 2020 that are able to function as “robo-taxis.”

Tuesday’s ruling in Munich was not a surprise to Tesla. Last August, Musk tweeted: “We’re working with EU regulators to improve rules. Spirit of rules is correct, but exact language doesn’t quite align with spirit. Navigate on Autopilot working well in rest of world.”

Tesla competes with established German car brands such as Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche.

The company is aiming to build a manufacturing beachhead outside of Berlin. Estimates are that its planned Grünheide factory will employ 3,000-3,500 per shift (around 10,500-12,000 total) according to a July 11 report from the German auto trade magazine, Automobile Woche.

On Tuesday, Tesla’s stock price seemed unfazed by the court ruling, up by around 1.3% at midday New York time.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
UK Prime Minister Starmer Reaffirms Support for Danish Sovereignty Over Greenland Amid U.S. Pressure
UK Support Bolsters U.S. Seizure of Russian-Flagged Tanker Marinera in Atlantic Strike on Sanctions Evasion
The Claim That Maduro’s Capture and Trial Violate International Law Is Either Legally Illiterate—or Deliberately Deceptive
UK Data Watchdog Probes Elon Musk’s X Over AI-Generated Grok Images Amid Surge in Non-Consensual Outputs
Prince Harry to Return to UK for Court Hearing Without Plans to Meet King Charles III
UK Confirms Support for US Seizure of Russian-Flagged Oil Tanker in North Atlantic
Béla Tarr, Visionary Hungarian Filmmaker, Dies at Seventy After Long Illness
UK and France Pledge Military Hubs Across Ukraine in Post-Ceasefire Security Plan
Prince Harry Poised to Regain UK Security Cover, Clearing Way for Family Visits
UK Junk Food Advertising Ban Faces Major Loophole Allowing Brand-Only Promotions
Maduro’s Arrest Without The Hague Tests International Law—and Trump’s Willingness to Break It
German Intelligence Secretly Intercepted Obama’s Air Force One Communications
The U.S. State Department’s account in Persian: “President Trump is a man of action. If you didn’t know it until now, now you do—do not play games with President Trump.”
Fake Mainstream Media Double Standard: Elon Musk Versus Mamdani
HSBC Leads 2026 Mortgage Rate Cuts as UK Lending Costs Ease
US Joint Chiefs Chairman Outlines How Operation Absolute Resolve Was Carried Out in Venezuela
Starmer Welcomes End of Maduro Era While Stressing International Law and UK Non-Involvement
Korean Beauty Turns Viral Skincare Into a Global Export Engine
UK Confirms Non-Involvement in U.S. Military Action Against Venezuela
UK Terror Watchdog Calls for Australian-Style Social Media Ban to Protect Teenagers
Iranian Protests Intensify as Another Revolutionary Guard Member Is Killed and Khamenei Blames the West
Delta Force Identified as Unit Behind U.S. Operation That Captured Venezuela’s President
Europe’s Luxury Sanctions Punish Russian Consumers While a Sanctions-Circumvention Industry Thrives
Berkshire’s Buffett-to-Abel Transition Tests Whether a One-Man Trust Model Can Survive as a System
Fraud in European Central Bank: Lagarde’s Hidden Pay Premium Exposes a Transparency Crisis at the European Central Bank
Trump Announces U.S. Large-Scale Strike on Venezuela, Declares President Maduro and Wife Captured
Tesla Loses EV Crown to China’s BYD After Annual Deliveries Decline in 2025
UK Manufacturing Growth Reaches 15-Month Peak as Output and Orders Improve in December
Beijing Threatened to Scrap UK–China Trade Talks After British Minister’s Taiwan Visit
Newly Released Files Reveal Tony Blair Pressured Officials Over Iraq Death Case Involving UK Soldiers
Top Stocks and Themes to Watch in 2026 as Markets Enter New Year with Fresh Momentum
No UK Curfew Ordered as Deepfake TikTok Falsely Attributes Decree to Prime Minister Starmer
Europe’s Largest Defence Groups Set to Return Nearly Five Billion Dollars to Shareholders in Twenty Twenty-Five
Abu Dhabi ‘Capital of Capital’: How Abu Dhabi Rose as a Sovereign Wealth Power
Diamonds Are Powering a New Quantum Revolution
Trump Threatens Strikes Against Iran if Nuclear Programme Is Restarted
Apple Escalates Legal Fight by Appealing £1.5 Billion UK Ruling Over App Store Fees
UK Debt Levels Sit Mid-Range Among Advanced Economies Despite Rising Pressures
UK Plans Royal Diplomacy with King Charles and Prince William to Reinvigorate Trade Talks with US
King Charles and Prince William Poised for Separate 2026 US Visits to Reinforce UK-US Trade and Diplomatic Ties
Apple Moves to Appeal UK Ruling Ordering £1.5 Billion in Customer Overcharge Damages
King Charles’s 2025 Christmas Message Tops UK Television Ratings on Christmas Day
The Battle Over the Internet Explodes: The United States Bars European Officials and Ignites a Diplomatic Crisis
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie Join Royal Family at Sandringham Christmas Service
Fine Wine Investors Find Little Cheer in Third Year of Falls
UK Mortgage Rates Edge Lower as Bank of England Base Rate Cut Filters Through Lending Market
U.S. Supermarket Gives Customers Free Groceries for Christmas After Computer Glitch
Air India ‘Finds’ a Plane That Vanished 13 Years Ago
Caviar and Foie Gras? China Is Becoming a Luxury Food Powerhouse
Hong Kong Climbs to Second Globally in 2025 Tourism Rankings Behind Bangkok
×