What Elon Musk promised however did not ship – Firstpost

A Tesla shareholder has filed a lawsuit in Texas, accusing the electrical automobile large and its CEO Elon Musk of securities fraud, The Info has reported.

The lawsuit claims that Tesla and Musk made “false and deceptive statements” in regards to the security of their robotaxis and downplayed the extent of regulatory scrutiny concerned in deploying autonomous automobiles.

Tesla launched its robotaxi service in Austin on June 22, however the automobiles nonetheless require a human security monitor within the passenger seat and are confined to a small, geofenced a part of the town.

Musk’s previous guarantees beneath the scanner

The 31-page criticism, filed late Monday, outlines a number of public statements made by Musk, arguing they have been overly optimistic, deceptive, and finally misleading to shareholders.

In 2023, Musk mentioned, “The development could be very clearly in direction of full self-driving, in direction of full autonomy. And I hesitate to say this, however I feel we’ll do it this 12 months.” Nonetheless, Tesla has but to ship a totally autonomous system that doesn’t require human supervision.

In 2024, Musk known as Tesla’s software program a “generalised answer,” contrasting it with Waymo’s “very localised” method. The lawsuit claims this misrepresented the aggressive panorama, as Waymo now operates absolutely driverless robotaxi companies in 5 US cities, together with Austin and Los Angeles.

In January 2025, Musk made his boldest declare but, saying Tesla would launch “unsupervised Full Self Driving as a paid service in Austin in June,” with “nobody within the automobile.” That launch has not materialised. Tesla’s present robotaxi operations in Austin and San Francisco nonetheless depend upon human supervisors.

Waymo pulls forward

Whereas Tesla has struggled to fulfill its timelines, Waymo has surged forward. The Google-backed firm now affords driverless rides– with out security drivers– in a number of cities, outpacing Tesla within the autonomous automobile race.

Erratic robotaxi behaviour raises security considerations

Regardless of Tesla’s security claims, a number of movies posted on-line present its robotaxis behaving unpredictably in Austin. The lawsuit cites a June 23 Bloomberg article titled “Tesla Robotaxi Movies Present Rushing, Driving Into Flawed Lane,” claiming the automobiles have been violating visitors legal guidelines from the very first day.

One other article, “Tesla Robotaxi Incidents Draw Scrutiny From US Security Company,” experiences that the Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration (NHTSA) contacted Tesla after movies on social media raised security considerations. The lawsuit notes that information of those incidents contributed to a decline in Tesla’s inventory worth.