Tesla Defends 'Autopilot' Branding Amid Legal Battle with California DMV

Tesla Inc. defended its use of the phrases "Autopilot" and "self-driving" for driver assistance functions, claiming in response to a California regulatory action that the agency had tacitly authorized the terms when it did not take action in prior investigations into them.

Tesla Claims California Agency Impliedly Approved of its 'Autopilot' Brand

Elon Musk's electric car firm was accused by California's Department of Motor Vehicles last year of falsely advertising its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving technologies as enabling autonomous vehicle control, as per Reuters. The DMV is pursuing remedies that may include suspending Tesla's license to sell vehicles in California, the company's largest U.S. market, and ordering the firm to compensate drivers.

Tesla stated in a Dec. 5 filing with the state Office of Administrative Hearings, which was made public on Friday that the DMV investigated its use of the Autopilot brand in 2014 and of that and other words in 2017.

"The DMV chose not to take any action against Tesla or otherwise communicate to Tesla that its advertising or use of these brand names was or might be problematic," Tesla stated.

The DMV also opted not to prohibit the use of "self-driving" and related terms in 2016 when developing regulations on comments about autonomous technology, according to Tesla. According to Tesla, legislation on the subject also removed a limitation on the terminology that was in an earlier DMV draft.

"Tesla relied upon Claimant's (the DMV's) implicit approval of these brand names," the company revealed. The DMV said in the 2022 allegations that Tesla misled prospective consumers with advertising that exaggerated the effectiveness of its advanced driving assistance systems (ADAS).

According to Tesla's website, the technologies "require active driver supervision," with a "fully attentive" driver with their hands on the wheel, "and do not make the vehicle autonomous." Tesla's disclaimer, according to the DMV, "contradicts the original untrue or misleading labels and claims, which is misleading, and does not cure the violation."

Stellantis Claims To Have Discovered Secret Behind Tesla's Battery Swapping Failure

Meanwhile, Stellantis, the worldwide manufacturer that produces Jeep, Dodge, and Fiat vehicles, is now testing the concept on a limited scale—with one important distinction—in the hopes of adopting it into future EV models.

According to CNN, Stellantis is collaborating with Ample, a startup that claims to have developed a novel battery-changing technology that can work in practically any shape or size of the vehicle. It claims that the technology does not necessitate any car modifications to accommodate a unique battery pack.

First, the equipment needed to change the batteries is typically modest. The battery switch stations designed by Ample, which handle the operation automatically, resemble backyard shelters with an extra-thick wall. The battery modules are kept and charged on the wall. There's also no need to excavate a hole in the ground beneath the battery changing station, as would be necessary if the equipment had to handle completely large, heavy battery packs.

The battery swapping stations do not require the high-wattage power connections that fast-charging stations do since the batteries do not require high-powered DC rapid charging and have plenty of time to charge inside the hut wall. According to Khaled Hassounah, founder and CEO of Ample, this simplifies their installation.

Furthermore, the vehicle itself might be any shape or size. An SUV, automobile, or truck does not have to be built around a large battery pack. The battery modules fit into a container underneath of the vehicle that would normally house a battery pack. The container is tailored to the vehicle's size and shape. A larger vehicle might easily carry more battery packs, whereas a smaller vehicle could carry fewer.

Ample is also collaborating with heavy equipment manufacturer Mitsubishi Fuso on a battery-swapping test with commercial trucks in Japan, in addition to Stellantis. The system is being tested in the United States with a range of Uber vehicles in the San Francisco Bay region. According to the company, Ample's 12 battery-swapping stations in the Bay Area are used "a few hundred" times every day.

The Ample battery modules may still be charged in the vehicle using a standard EV charger, giving drivers the choice of plugging in or swapping batteries based on the situation. Most EV owners could still charge their vehicles overnight at home, as usual.

Stellantis has not stated whether or not the system will be included in its global EV models. Stellantis will utilize the Ample battery swap technology in a fleet of 100 Fiat 500e electric cars that will be part of the company's Free2Move car-sharing service in Spain next year.

According to Ricardo Stamatti-Avila, Stellantis's vice president of charging and energy, the Fiat 500e, a little electric car with a range of roughly 150 miles, is an ideal test case for battery swapping.

Even in larger vehicles, Ample's battery-switching technology might save drivers from having to buy a lot of extra battery power that they may only utilize occasionally, as they currently do. Customers may hire the extra battery packs they require for long trips, according to Stamatti-Avila.

If the technology works successfully in Spain, Stellantis will initially look to commercial fleet customers to begin developing an infrastructure of exchanging stations, he said. Ordinary retail customers could begin using the system once a sufficient number of exchanging stations are available. On the other hand, if Stellantis' Spanish experiment fails, the whole battery-swapping issue may fade into obscurity, as it did with Tesla.

Photo: David von Diemar/YouTube Screenshot