US appeals court blocks class actions over Tesla's self — driving claims

By Mike Scarcella Oct 16 (Reuters) — A US appeals court threw out on Friday an order allowing Tesla customers in California to pursue class action claims accusing the electric vehicle maker of misleading them about the capabilities of its full self-driving technology. In its ruling, a three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals said there were too many individualized questions about what buyers actually saw before making a purchase, and so they could not sustain their lawsuit as a class action. The appeals court decision is a win for now for Tesla, which had urged the appeals court to vacate orders by a California judge last year certifying three sets of classes. The ruling means the thousands of California buyers the lower court had grouped together cannot, for now, pursue their claims jointly in a single case. The ruling is not on the merits of the plaintiffs' lawsuit alleging false advertising, and the case remains pending. The plaintiffs contend Tesla is misrepresenting its vehicles' hardware capabilities for full self-driving, convincing customers to pay extra money for software that they say does not work. In a statement, the plaintiffs' lawye