“duped” isn’t the right word here. People optimistically paid money for a thing that didn’t exist, in the hopes that it would.
People bought into a kickstarter and are entering the “find out” stage
People bought into a kickstarter and are entering the “find out” stage
For Tesla, you paid for a product that exists and outright does not have what the manufacturer claims. That's false advertising.
If you bought a computer that advertised itself as having a top of the line video card, but then as it turns out the company wouldn't let you use it unless you paid extra and then outright prevented you from using it entirely I assume you would say the company was trying to scam you.
If they didn't want people to buy into FSD then they shouldn't have advertised and sold their cars with FSD.
Tesla won that one in a case brought by Tesla investors.[1]
Defendants argue that the Timeline Statements that FSDC technology “appear[ed] to be on track,” would be available “aspirationally by the end of the year,” and Tesla was “aiming to release [it] this year,” [..] were nonactionable statements of corporate puffery and optimism. […] Plaintiffs contend that the statements provided a “concrete description” of the state of Tesla’s technology in a way that misled investors. […]. These statements about Tesla’s aims and aspirations to develop Tesla’s technology by the end of the year and Musk’s confidence in the development timeline are too vague for an investor to rely on them. […] Thus, in addition to being protected under the PSLRA safe harbor, Statements (10, 11, and 18) are nonactionable puffery.
Defendants also assert that several Safety Statements are corporate puffery. For example, statements that safety is “paramount” (FAC ¶ 325), Tesla cars are “absurdly safe” (id.), autopilot is “superhuman” (FAC ¶ 337), and “we want to get to as close to perfection as possible” (FAC¶363). Mot. at 19. Plaintiffs respond that “super” in “superhuman” is not puffery because it represents that ADT is safer than human and “absurdly safe” conveys greater-than-human safety. Opp. at 12. However, these vague statements of corporate optimism are not objectively verifiable.
So Tesla admitted in the investor case that FSD is a lie. The legal argument relies on the "right to lie".
However, Tesla is not doing as well in a case brought by unhappy FSD customers.[2] They potentially have stronger rights. That case is being stalled by Tesla, but it moves forward slowly anyway.
It's essential to Musk's net worth that the FSD lie not collapse. Tesla's 94.64 P/E ratio assumes huge future growth. Now that everybody makes electric cars, just being an electric car maker isn't enough. Tesla is behind CATL and BYD and Samsung on battery technology and battery cost. Much of Tesla's overvaluation is being propped up only by Tesla's FSD hype. If the FSD bubble collapses, and P/E drops to a value appropriate to a car company (under 15, maybe lower), Musk stops being one of the richest people in the world.
This explains the sucking up to Trump.
[1] https://electrek.co/2024/10/02/elon-musk-celebrates-winning-...
[2] https://electrek.co/2024/06/10/teslas-dmv-self-driving-false...
"Duped" is an accurate description of how Elon Musk has been treating customers who bought a Tesla car with a HW3. He's been repeatedly promising those buyers that full self driving is just a software update away. Now apparently FSD is an impossibility and the company is rushing to hire drivers? In the very least it's bait-and-switch scam.
The robo-taxi fleet is scheduled to be launched by 2026. This means Tesla, in spite of Elon Musk's wild claims, is not counting on providing anything remotely similar to FSD until at least 2026.
Is comparison to Kickstarter just a post-facto excuse for false advertising that anyone can use for any product, or does just Tesla/Musk get this benefit for some reason?
I agree it’s false advertising, and musk should be held accountable for that. But there has to be a little responsibility on consumers who pay for a thing that does exist and worse has actually never existed in the universe (camera-fed self driving)