Tesla Wins Appeal: Court Throws Out Class Certification in California FSD Lawsuit

On October 16, 2026, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit handed Tesla a procedural win in one of its most closely watched Full Self-Driving lawsuits. In a memorandum in LoSavio v. Tesla (No. 25-7927), a three-judge panel vacated the order that had allowed California buyers to sue as a class.

What the case is about

Plaintiff Thomas LoSavio claims Tesla broke California consumer-protection law by misrepresenting its cars’ hardware for the FSD package. At its center is the “Hardware Statement”: Tesla’s claim that vehicles sold from October 2016 on had the hardware needed for full self-driving. Last year, District Judge Rita Lin certified two damages classes and one injunctive-relief class.

What the court decided

• Judges Gould, Bybee and Bress found the lower court was wrong to infer that every class member saw the Hardware Statement
• That error affects whether claims can be proven class-wide, how statute-of-limitations defenses apply and the scope of the injunctive class
• All three classes are vacated and the case goes back to the district court
• The panel did not rule on the damages model

As Reuters points out, this is not a ruling on the merits. The false-advertising claims are still pending, but thousands of buyers can’t pursue them jointly in a single case for now.

Rocks take

For Tesla, it’s a relief days before its Q3 results on October 21: a class action would have put far more money at stake. For owners of older cars stuck on HW3 hardware, it means fighting individually. The question of what “FSD-capable hardware” really promised isn’t settled.