I wonder how many people complaining about Tesla's marketing actually have a Tesla. The car clearly makes you acknowledge that the driver is responsible before using any Autopilot/FSD capability, and if you bought the car with the expectation that it didn't , you have a return period to get your money back in full. It doesn't matter if they said it would take you to the moon and back. If you test drive or buy it and don't like it then just return it: no harm done.
It does in Germany (as the ruling in question indicates). False advertising here is very much considered 'harm done' and no way to do business. Lying to the customer until she takes the product out of the box is in no way, shape or form how you operate in this country. (well I guess it was for wirecard which is embarassing enough)
I do not want to live somewhere where I have to order ten things, three are fake, three I have to sent back, another few break and the last thing works.
Even in the US false advertising like OP suggests is considered fraudulent and against the law. There are just too many Musk fanboys around here that don't seem to know how the law works.
> It doesn't matter if they said it would take you to the moon and back. If you test drive or buy it and don't like it then just return it: no harm done.
Under German law it seems that it does, in fact, matter.
It sounds like you don't believe in the concept of false advertising at all. Telling the truth after you buy the thing doesn't absolve you of the initial fraud. To my mind it exacerbates it, because it demonstrates that you know that your advertising is fraudulent.
I think some of the comments here are specific to the German market, and others are more general. My original comment was "in general" and not specific to the German market.
False advertising may be wrong, but it might not always be criminal. Is "Fat Free" really fat free....? If we held politicians to the same standard there would be a lot more of them in jail.
Ceveat Emptor, but at least Tesla does let you return it, minus the inconvenience, which you might deserve for not reading up on it before (I did when I bought mine and knew exactly what Autopilot "meant").
> False advertising may be wrong, but it might not always be criminal
Here, you got it exactly right. I am delighted to see that Germany makes sure that wrongdoing (at least this particular case) is a crime there, and I can only wish other markets make these two words more synonymous as well. I mean, this is pretty much exactly what law is supposed to do.
I get your point, and to a small degree agree with you. The Tesla owners I know understand the limits of the technology and drive reasonably. I'm considering buying a Tesla, knowing the limits of the technology myself. However there are two big ugly facts which bug the hell out of me...
- Their advertising is misleading to most consumers. Whether informed people or existing owners know what the product is capable of doesn't matter, they are advertising in a misleading way.
> no harm done.
It is clear that a subset of Tesla drivers puts too much faith in the effectiveness of Tesla's autopilot. Even though these drivers acknowledged and accepted the risks, it's clear they believe they can trust their Tesla to keep them safe even while they are not watching the road. Tesla's marketing clearly exacerbates this. The fact that Tesla's do the right thing 99% of the time reinforces that marketing message... up until that 0.01% situation occurs, then lots of harm done
So, on that basis, all false advertising should be legal provided the manufacture includes a ‘yeah, we made that up, this is actually a toaster, not a time machine’ pamphlet?
