Tesla “Autopilot” is no more, after California pressured Tesla to change the name

• Tesla is changing the name of its driver assistance systems after the California Department of Motor Vehicles threatened to revoke its dealer license.
• California had previously ruled that the names “Autopilot” and “Full Self-Driving” misrepresented the system’s capabilities, in violation of state law.
• ‘Full Self-Driving’ will now be suffixed with ‘(Under Supervised)’ in all marketing materials, while ‘Autopilot’ has been rebranded as ‘Traffic Aware Cruise Control’.

Tesla’s Autopilot system is dead. Well, not exactly, but at least the controversial name has been retired. The move to stop using the name “Autopilot” for the company’s driver assistance features comes as the California Department of Motor Vehicles threatened to suspend Tesla’s dealer license in the state after the government agency determined in December that the name was misleading.

Tesla has branded its driver assistance systems under dubiously bold names for about a decade, using the names Autopilot and Full Self-Driving for their varying levels of driver assistance, despite the fact that the systems still require human supervision. Along with the misleading names, Tesla has claimed that the systems can control the vehicle “without requiring any action from the person in the driver’s seat,” which is untrue, as even Tesla’s most advanced system is considered Level 2 autonomy and still requires the driver to pay full attention to the road ahead.

After an administrative ruling in California determined that the name and way the systems were marketed exaggerated the technology’s capabilities and violated state law, California threatened to suspend the automaker’s dealer license. In one statement published on Tuesdaythe California DMV said that “Tesla has successfully taken the required action to stop using the term ‘Autopilot’ in the marketing of its vehicles in California, as required by the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) last December.” By adhering to the ruling, “Tesla will avoid having its dealer and manufacturer licenses suspended by DMV for 30 days.”

Tesla will now refer to the systems by new names even outside of California, with the Full Self-Driving now called “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)” and the Autopilot now called “Traffic Aware Cruise Control.” The changes appear to have already taken place on Tesla’s website. Yet the legal pressure has not changed CEO Elon Musk’s approach Posted on X today to “Try self-driving Tesla, it’s awesome!”

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Caleb Miller started blogging about cars at the age of 13, and he realized his dream of writing for a car magazine after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University and joining the Car and driver team. He enjoys quirky and obscure cars, with a goal of one day owning something as bizarre as a Nissan S-Cargo, and is an avid motorsport fan.