Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been promising that his company’s EVs will be capable of fully driving themselves as soon as next year — every year for the last 12 or so years.

While the company has made some progress towards that lofty goal, it’s still little more than a glorified beta: Tesla owners still have to be ready to take over control of the steering wheel at all times, even when the erroneously-named “Full Self-Driving” (FSD) software is engaged. (The company was recently forced to add the oxymoronic label of “Supervised” to the end of the feature’s name.)

Despite its glaring limitations, it’s also extremely expensive. In February, the company dropped its one-time purchase fee of an eye-watering $8,000, forcing owners to shell out $99 a month in perpetuity to unlock the software.

Considering Musk has yet to make good on his promise of truly self-driving Teslas over a decade later, it’s no wonder existing owners are starting to get fed up. As the Wall Street Journal reports, Tesla has repeatedly been hit with lawsuits over the mercurial CEO’s repeated — and outright false — claims.

The latest is retired attorney Tom LoSavio, who bought a Model S in 2017 and paid $8,000 on top of the over $100,000 luxury sedan to access what Musk claimed will eventually allow the car to drive itself.

In his class action suit, LoSavio accused Tesla of misleading consumers with its false claims about self-driving capabilities and is calling for owners to be refunded. It’s just one of numerous ongoing cases filed by angry owners looking to hold Musk to his infamously unreliable word.

While owners remain furious over being misled, investors have heavily bought in on the richest man in the world’s lofty promises. Even a controversial pivot from EV sales to robotics and a robotaxi service, which is only starting to take shape now, has Wall Street unperturbed. Despite a rapidly drying up core business, Tesla’s valuation remains well over a trillion dollars.

Meanwhile, even Musk himself admitted in January 2025 that the existing hardware installed in a huge number of Tesla vehicles — a package called Hardware 3, which was installed in vehicles produced from 2018 and 2023 — won’t be enough for fully autonomous driving.

Despite repeatedly hinting at free hardware upgrades, the company has yet to make good on its offer, leading to plenty of frustration among owners.

A Dutch driver recently launched a collective claim against the EV maker over the issue, demanding his $8,000 for FSD back for never receiving a hardware upgrade. Tesla’s official answer: “just be patient,” as Electrek reported last week.

While its angry customers remain unsatisfied, Tesla has instead committed itself to launching a robotaxi ride-hailing service. A Cybercab, which doesn’t feature a steering wheel or pedals, could go into production as soon as this month, if Musk is to be believed. The billionaire warned that initial production will be “agonizingly slow.”

However, a public Waymo-like service likely won’t be much of a consolation to owners, who have struggled to hold Tesla accountable for its many misdirections.

LoSavio’s lawsuit, which was filed in California, won class-action status in September, a certification Tesla is already trying to appeal, per the WSJ. Tesla is also facing a separate class action lawsuit filed in an Australian federal court.

For now, Musk has not given up on selling his dream for self-driving, promising in October that an upcoming version of FSD, called 14.3, will make the car “feel like it is sentient.”

In November, he called the update the “last enormous piece of the puzzle” — the kind of boisterous claim owners should’ve learned to ignore outright years ago.

“Bro, it doesn’t matter how many times you say this, you do actually have to deliver at some point,” one X user retorted at the time.

More on FSD: Tesla Driver Alarmed as FSD Takes Him Directly Into the Path of an Oncoming Train