Tesla Skirts California Sales Ban After Killing Autopilot

Tesla will continue selling vehicles in California after the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles confirmed the company has taken "corrective action" regarding how it markets its driver-assistance technology, according to a new Bloomberg report. The move allows the automaker to avoid a potential 30-day sales suspension. Regulators had been prepared to suspend Tesla’s sales license following a judge’s ruling in December, but the company was given time to comply. Late Tuesday, the DMV said Tesla updated its wording to clarify that the features are not fully autonomous and require constant supervision.

The End of an Era for Autopilot

To meet regulatory expectations in the state, Tesla has effectively retired the "Autopilot" name in California. Separately, Tesla discontinued Autopilot for new vehicle orders in the United States and Canada last month; new deliveries now include Traffic Aware Cruise Control (TACC) as the standard feature.

For years, every Tesla shipped with the Basic Autopilot suite, which included TACC and Autosteer — the feature that keeps the vehicle centered in its lane. Access to those advanced lane-keeping capabilities now requires a paid FSD subscription. The company also retired its Autopilot steering wheel symbol last fall.

Supervised vs. Unsupervised

A key element of the "corrective action" is how Tesla presents its top-tier software. The company has increasingly referred to it as Full Self-Driving (Supervised). By including "Supervised" in the name, Tesla underscores that the current system is not fully autonomous and needs driver oversight. The company describes this as a step toward a future, unsupervised version of Full Self-Driving.