> Do they have warnings as big as "full self driving" texts in advertisements?
Tesla doesn’t advertise; they rely entirely on word of mouth, storefronts (both online and physical), and publicity/news coverage. But the answer to your question is that, on their website at least, the text disclaimers for the FSD option are the same sizes as the disclaimers for other options like the Tow Package (the disclaimer for which says “Tow up to 3,500 lbs with a class II steel tow bar”) or the wheels (the disclaimer for which shows range estimates depending on the chosen wheel diameter).
> And if it is NOT actually full self driving, why call it full self driving?
To me, this is like asking why ISPs offer “Unlimited Data” plans that have very strict limits on what constitutes “unlimited”.
It’s important to remember that the phrase “Full Self Driving” has no legal or industry-standard definition. For the sake of this discussion, and as far as I’m aware, the FSD product has never been available for purchase or subscription without a parenthetical designation, e.g. “Full Self Driving (Beta)” or “Full Self Driving (Supervised)” which, to me, suggests Tesla is acting in good faith—well, at least as far as good-faith acts exist in our marketing-driven culture. It’s only been within the last year or so that Musk has talked about “Full Self Driving (Unsupervised)” which is, I believe, the designation for what will ultimately become the Level 4/5 autonomy product.
FSD is currently classified as Level 2 autonomy by SAE. While a Level 3 autonomy product is available in the US, it is:
- only available in the Mercedes Drive Pilot product,
- only available in CA or NV,
- limited to 40mph on pre-approved roads,
- only available during daylight/good weather conditions.
The difference between the real-world capabilities of Drive Pilot and FSD is quite stark; while FSD is not officially classified as Level 3 autonomy, it’s dramatically closer to what I believe most consumers would consider “autonomous driving” than is the Mercedes product. I only got to try it for a few days so it wasn’t a detailed comparison but my own experience with Mercedes product was disappointing when compared to Tesla’s product. IOW, while perhaps not semantically accurate, the product name “Full Self Driving” is far more accurate than any other available product offering.
> That's just false advertising. You can't get around that.
Product names are very rarely subject to scrutiny for being “false advertising”. Again, the phrase “Full Self Driving” has no legal or official definition. Should it have a legal definition? I don’t know, but I do know that the “Unlimited Data” plans from carriers and ISPs are widely understood not to be “unlimited”; I don’t love those kinds of product naming schemes but I’m not sure how the FSD case is any different from a legal perspective.
> I can't believe our current laws let Tesla get away like that.
Get away with what? IME, Tesla (and pretty much every org on the planet) carefully skirt the boundaries of the law. Sometimes, if they cross a legal boundary, they’ll become subject to investigation and possibly consequences but, in the case of FSD, the court has already dismissed the lawsuit claiming Tesla lied about its capabilities. They “get away like that” by not breaking the law. Until laws change, orgs will continue to be incredibly and often overly optimistic when discussing their products.