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Science & Technology

California regulators decide not to suspend Tesla sales in the state

Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Patrick Pleul
/
AP
Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

California regulators said on Tuesday that Tesla had stopped misleading drivers about the safety of its cars and so has decided not to suspend its license to sell in the state for 30 days.

The decision by the California Department of Motor Vehicles comes after Elon Musk’s electric vehicle maker was found by an administrative law judge last year to have misled drivers about the ability of Tesla cars to drive themselves in its use of the terms “Autopilot” and “Full Self-Driving.”

The judge had recommended that regulators suspend Tesla’s license to sell cars for 30 days, but the regulators gave the company a 90-day window to make changes. They decided it had done that sufficiently to fix the deceptive marketing.

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Tesla now uses the term “supervised” in references to its Full Self Driving and has stopped using Autopiolot in its marketing in the state.

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