One of the main arguments of Tesla models, the famous Autopilot is “under fire” in Germany.
Second advance to Autocar and the Automotive News Europe , the Munich Regional Court ruled that the brand can no longer use the term “Autopilot” in its sales and marketing materials in Germany.
The decision came after a complaint by the German body responsible for fighting unfair competition.
The bases of this decision
According to the court: “using the term “Autopilot” (…) suggests that cars are technically capable of driving fully autonomously”. We remind you that the Tesla Autopilot is a level 2 system out of the five possible in autonomous driving, with level 5 being that of a fully autonomous car that does not require driver intervention.
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At the same time, he recalled that Tesla had wrongly promoted that its models would be able to drive autonomously in cities by the end of 2019.
According to the Munich Regional Court, the use of the term “Autopilot” can mislead consumers about the system's capabilities.
However, Elon Musk turned to Twitter to "attack" the court decision, noting that the term "Autopilot" comes from aviation. For now, Tesla has not yet commented on a possible appeal of this decision.
Tesla Autopilot was literally named after the term used in aviation. Also, what about Autobahn!?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 14, 2020
Sources: Autocar and Automotive News Europe.