Autopilot, “Full Self-Driving” and the robotaxi promises

On 25 April 2019, George McGee was driving his 2019 Model S, equipped with Autopilot, in Key Largo, Florida, when it hit a parked Chevrolet Tahoe. The Tahoe struck Naibel Benavides Leon and Dillon Angulo, who were standing nearby. Benavides Leon was killed and Angulo was badly injured. [1]

In August 2025, a federal jury found Tesla liable for a defective design and a failure to warn, held it 33 percent responsible, and awarded punitive damages. The final judgment against Tesla was $242.57 million: $42.57 million in compensatory damages after the 33 percent reduction, and $200 million in punitive damages. On 20 February 2026, Judge Beth Bloom denied Tesla’s request for judgment in its favor or a new trial. [1][2]

Tesla has appealed to the Eleventh Circuit; the case is pending. [3]

Tesla’s own support page calls the product Full Self-Driving (Supervised) and says the driver must stay attentive and the car is not autonomous. [1]

On 16 December 2025, California’s DMV adopted a judge’s finding that the names “Autopilot” and “Full Self-Driving Capability” misled consumers. It stayed a suspension of Tesla’s licence to give the company time to fix the marketing; in February 2026 Tesla stopped using “Autopilot” in California. [2][3]

In December 2023 Tesla recalled about two million vehicles to tighten driver-attention controls through a software update. In April 2024 NHTSA opened a query into whether the remedy worked, after more crashes. [4][5]

The promises have a long paper trail. In April 2019 Musk said Tesla would have more than a million robotaxis on the road by 2020. In January 2026, some Tesla robotaxi rides in Austin began without a safety monitor in the car, and Cybercab rides followed in September, drawing federal regulators’ questions. [6][7][8]