A group of Tesla shareholders sued the company and CEO Elon Musk, alleging they weren’t forthcoming about problems with its robotaxi.
The proposed class action lawsuit, filed in a Texas federal court Monday, says Tesla misled investors, failed to disclose problems with its long-in-the-works robotaxi service, and “overstated the effectiveness of its autonomous driving technology.”
“There was thus a significant risk that the Company’s autonomous driving vehicles, including the Robotaxi, would operate dangerously and/or in violation of traffic laws,” the lawsuit said.
Tesla debuted a test of its robotaxis — fully autonomous cars available through a ride-hailing service — on June 22.
There were some hiccups.
According to videos posted by influencers and Tesla shareholder who participated in the test in Austin, some cars drove in the wrong lane, exceeded the speed limit, braked at inappropriate times, and had trouble parking without intervention. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it was looking into the irregularities depicted in videos.
Shareholders appeared unhappy: Tesla’s stock price fell by 6.05% over June 24 and June 25, following reports about the videos and the NHTSA announcement, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit also points to the August 1 jury verdict in a Florida federal court over a deadly crash involving a Tesla on “Autopilot” mode.
The jury awarded the family of Naibel Benavides Leon and her boyfriend, Dillon Angulo, a combined $329 million in total damages. It found Tesla responsible for $242.5 million in combined punitive and compensatory damages in the case.
Per Reuters, the case is Morand v Tesla Inc et al, U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas, No. 25-01213. This is a shareholders’ lawsuit, so it’s not so much about how good or bad the tech is but that it may have been released prematurely and in doing so caused damage to the stock’s value. I await further news with great interest. Quartz and The Guardian have more.