SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Germany's Federal Motor Authority recently sent letters to Tesla drivers reminding them that the "Autopilot" function is for driver assistance, not replacement. Now, Tesla is being warned against advertising the feature:
German Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt has asked Tesla to stop advertising its electric vehicles as having an Autopilot function as this might suggest drivers' attention is not needed, his ministry said on Sunday.
A spokeswoman for the ministry, confirming a report in the daily Bild am Sonntag (BamS), said the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) had written to Tesla to make the request. "It can be confirmed that a letter to Tesla exists with the request to no longer use the misleading term Autopilot for the driver assistance system of the car," she said in a written response to a Reuters' query.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by archfeld on Monday October 17 2016, @06:33PM
This is a refreshing take on TV commercials. It would be really cool if neither printed nor video based ads could show or imply that objects could perform actions they can't. Barbie can't walk or talk, your Nissan can't do a rail slide on a bridge, the image on the phone you are seeing is simulated and the network sequence is shortened, if you jump your Jeep like this the front axle WILL break and the car will be a total. The numbers quoted by phone networks are so slanted and meaningless. Drug commercials are horrible, there is more small print than can actually be shown in a 30 second spot and they literally have to refer you to a printed ad in a magazine, or a web site that contains 9 paragraphs that essentially deny all the claims they just made. I applaud the Germans for standing up in this one instance, but I'd like all vendors to be held to the same standards. All NEW is a claim that is tossed about constantly as well, which is almost always not true either.
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 17 2016, @08:19PM
It doesn't matter, the advertising industry will just issue non-claims (shampoo that you say makes your hair feel more healthy). [strikethrough]autopilot[/strikethrough] autodrive. Etc.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 17 2016, @09:13PM
> I applaud the Germans for standing up in this one instance, but I'd like all vendors to be held to the same standards.
They mostly are. Europe (and the UK) have much more strict requirements for ads than the US does.
I'm too lazy dig up stories about other enforcement actions, but here's a EU primer:
http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consumer_rights/unfair-trade/false-advertising/index_en.htm [europa.eu]
(Score: 4, Touché) by butthurt on Tuesday October 18 2016, @04:00AM
I had passed through Washington Street thousands of times before and viewed the ways of those who sold merchandise, but my curiosity concerning them was as if I had never gone by their way before. I took wondering note of the show windows of the stores, filled with goods arranged with a wealth of pains and artistic device to attract the eye. I saw the throngs of ladies looking in, and the proprietors eagerly watching the effect of the bait. I went within and noted the hawk-eyed floor-walker watching for business, overlooking the clerks, keeping them up to their task of inducing the customers to buy, buy, buy, for money if they had it, for credit if they had it not, to buy what they wanted not, more than they wanted, what they could not afford. At times I momentarily lost the clue and was confused by the sight. Why this effort to induce people to buy? Surely that had nothing to do with the legitimate business of distributing products to those who needed them. Surely it was the sheerest waste to force upon people what they did not want, but what might be useful to another. The nation was so much the poorer for every such achievement. What were these clerks thinking of? Then I would remember that they were not acting as distributors like those in the store I had visited in the dream Boston. They were not serving the public interest, but their immediate personal interest, and it was nothing to them what the ultimate effect of their course on the general prosperity might be, if but they increased their own hoard, for these goods were their own, and the more they sold and the more they got for them, the greater their gain. The more wasteful the people were, the more articles they did not want which they could be induced to buy, the better for these sellers. To encourage prodigality was the express aim of the ten thousand stores of Boston.
—Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward