It appears that after years of broken promises and bald-faced lying, the DoJ has opened up an investigation into Tesla for securities fraud and wire fraud.
What Elon has been doing since ……… Well basically since leaving high school has been lying through his teeth worse than the worst used car salesman out there.
While the law makes allowances for puffery, so, unlike the plot device in the 1980 film Used Cars, you cannot be prosecuted for making obvious exaggerations like, "We have miles of cars," his statements on self driving, along with the staged videos allegedly demonstrating this capability, are clearly an attempt do deceive. (Also the solar shingles and the diesel powered supercharger stations, but I digress)
Here's hoping that they frog march him out of his offices in hand cuffs:
U.S. prosecutors are examining whether Tesla committed securities or wire fraud by misleading investors and consumers about its electric vehicles’ self-driving capabilities, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving systems assist with steering, braking and lane changes - but are not fully autonomous. While Tesla has warned drivers to stay ready to take over driving, the Justice Department is examining other statements by Tesla and Chief Executive Elon Musk suggesting its cars can drive themselves.
U.S. regulators have separately investigated hundreds of crashes, including fatal ones, that have occurred in Teslas with Autopilot engaged, resulting in a mass recall by the automaker.
Reuters exclusively reported the U.S. criminal investigation into Tesla in October 2022, and is now the first to report the specific criminal liability federal prosecutors are examining.
Investigators are exploring whether Tesla committed wire fraud, which involves deception in interstate communications, by misleading consumers about its driver-assistance systems, the sources said. They are also examining whether Tesla committed securities fraud by deceiving investors, two of the sources said.
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Tesla videos demonstrating the technology that remain archived, on its website say: "The person in the driver’s seat is only there for legal reasons. He is not doing anything. The car is driving itself."
A Tesla engineer testified in 2022 in a lawsuit over a fatal crash involving Autopilot that one of the videos, posted in October 2016, intended to show the technology’s potential and did not accurately portray its capabilities at the time. Musk nevertheless posted the video on social media, writing: “Tesla drives itself (no human input at all) thru urban streets to highway streets, then finds a parking spot.”
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Musk has repeatedly promised self-driving Teslas for about a decade. "Mere failure to realize a long-term, aspirational goal is not fraud," Tesla lawyers said in a 2022 court filing.
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Prosecutors scrutinizing Tesla’s autonomous-car claims are proceeding with caution, recognizing the legal hurdles they face, the people familiar with the inquiry said.
They will need to demonstrate that Tesla’s claims crossed a line from legal salesmanship to material and knowingly false statements that unlawfully harmed consumers or investors, three legal experts uninvolved in the probe told Reuters.
U.S. courts previously have ruled that “puffery” or “corporate optimism” regarding product claims do not amount to fraud. In 2008, a federal appeals court ruled that statements of corporate optimism alone do not demonstrate that a company official intentionally misled investors.
Yes, but knowingly lying about your progress is fraud, and concealing information from regulators is a criminal conspiracy.
I don't expect him to go to jail, he's too rich for the wheels of our justice system to grind the Apartheid Era Emerald Heir Pedo Guy™ to dust, but I can dream.
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