Now We Know Why Tesla Killed Autopilot

California DMV says that Tesla "successfully took the required action" to retain its dealer license by no longer marketing Autopilot.

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Rob Stumpf

By: Rob Stumpf

Feb 18, at 6:41pm ET

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Tesla recently dropped Autosteer from new cars, effectively killing off the Autopilot name.
It appears this may be related to an administrative ruling issued by the California DMV over long-standing allegations of deceptive marketing.
The California DMV labels this a compliance action, noting that Tesla "successfully took the required action" necessary to avoid a suspension of its dealer's license.

We finally know what killed Tesla's "Autopilot"—or at least what played a part in the decision to remove Autosteer from the driver assistance features included with new Teslas. It was the California DMV.

After months of scrutiny, Tesla has taken what the California DMV is calling "corrective action" to avoid a suspension of its dealer's license in the state. The correction? Completely doing away with its decade-old Autopilot branding.

Tesla Model Y Juniper Autopilot Screen

Photo by: Tesla

California has been threatening (and preparing) to suspend Tesla's dealer license after an administrative ruling found that the company's marketing exaggerated what its driver-assistance systems were actually capable of.

In fact, that's the crux of this whole saga. Both Autopilot and Full Self-Driving require human supervision and have never been fully autonomous systems. Tesla has been arguing this point with the DMV directly since at least 2021. Still, the branding has long lived in a fuzzy zone between aspirational and literal, and depending on who you were talking to, many folks who didn't know any better still assume that Teslas can drive themselves.

That's the marketing problem that the California DMV is talking about. In a statement issued on Tuesday, the DMV confirmed that Tesla "successfully took action" to avoid a suspension of its license:

Tesla successfully took the required action to stop using the term “Autopilot” in the marketing of its vehicles in California, as required by the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) last December. In doing so, Tesla avoids having its dealer and manufacturer licenses suspended by DMV for 30 days.

“The DMV is committed to safety throughout all California’s roadways and communities,” said DMV Director Steve Gordon. “The department is pleased that Tesla took the required action to remain in compliance with the State of California’s consumer protections.”

Tesla recently began removing Autosteer from its new vehicles. It began with the Cybertruck some time ago, but expanded to its affordable base-trimmed cars late last year. At the time, a Tesla spokesperson reportedly told at least one YouTuber that the decision was made to push more buyers towards the Full Self-Driving package—a metric required for Musk's trillion dollar pay package—however, in January, the move expanded to all new Model 3 and Model Ys.

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Now, it's important to point out that Tesla didn't have to remove Autosteer from its cars as part of the Autopilot branding change. But it still did. Interestingly, Tesla has also appeared to stop offering Autopilot in some markets where FSD is not available.

California's big gripe with Autopilot and FSD was the marketing (both naming and the representation of the functional capabilities). With the Autopilot branding now retired, California is taking it as a win.

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