Tesla has avoided a potential 30-day suspension of vehicle sales in California after state regulators confirmed the company has corrected how it markets its driver-assistance technology.
The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) announced this week that Tesla has taken “corrective action” to comply with consumer protection requirements, allowing the automaker to continue selling vehicles in its largest U.S. market.
The decision follows a December ruling in which Tesla was given 90 days to address concerns raised by regulators and an administrative law judge. At issue was the company’s use of the terms “Autopilot” and “Full Self-Driving,” which regulators argued could lead consumers to believe Tesla vehicles were fully autonomous when they still require active driver supervision.
Tesla Discontinues Autopilot
Perhaps the most significant change was not only discontinuing the use of the term “Autopilot” in its marketing materials, but also discontinuing the product entirely. As we had previously reported, Tesla no longer offers the once-standard driver-assist feature on new vehicles, instead offering them only with Traffic Aware Cruise Control (TACC).
With these changes, the California DMV confirmed Tesla has addressed the concerns, saying the company had met the requirements needed to avoid enforcement penalties.
Regulators had warned that failing to comply could result in a temporary suspension of Tesla’s dealer license in California—a move that would have halted vehicle sales for a month.
Even before the ruling, Tesla has also adopted clearer terminology to describe its more advanced driver-assistance system. Instead of referring to its software simply as Full Self-Driving, the company now uses the name “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)” to emphasize that human oversight is still required.
Background on California’s Investigation
California regulators first raised concerns in 2022, pointing to marketing language suggesting Tesla vehicles could operate autonomously with little or no driver input. Nearly four years later, an administrative law judge later ruled Tesla’s use of terms like “Autopilot” violated state law and recommended suspending Tesla’s license to sell vehicles for 30 days.
Rather than immediately enforcing the penalty, the DMV granted Tesla a 90-day window to resolve the issue. This gave the company time to revise its marketing language and clarify the limitations of its technology.
The DMV ultimately determined Tesla had made sufficient changes to remain in compliance, allowing sales to continue uninterrupted.
