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Germany's Federal Motor Authority Warns Tesla Over "Autopilot" Advertising

posted by cmn32480 on Monday October 17 2016, @03:47PM   Printer-friendly
from the keep-your-eyes-on-the-road dept.

takyon writes:

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.

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  • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Tuesday October 18 2016, @07:06AM

    by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday October 18 2016, @07:06AM (#415569) Journal
    The root of the problem is that people shouldn't be relying on the Tesla autopilot to the extent that they are doing. The whole point of the German advice is to tell people to stop relying on the autopilot. The claims made by Tesla are misleading and the German government is asking Tesla politely to be more truthful and comply with EU legislation. If they don't respond to a polite request then there are certainly other avenues that the German government could choose to follow e.g. not giving Tesla a certificate of road worthiness in Germany. Tesla can keep the driver assist, call it an autopilot, but they couldn't sell their cars. Now which do you think Tesla would prefer?

    What are you talking about? Have you not seen all the videos of people doing exactly that [... concentrating on other tasks]?

    that the "Autopilot" function is for driver assistance,

    Exactly, we know it happens - idiots even show themselves on Youtube doing it - but they should concentrate on driving the car.

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