- A lawsuit claims Tesla odometers inaccurately track mileage using software-based estimation.
- The plaintiff says inflated mileage cost them warranty coverage and depreciation losses.
- Other owners on Reddit and Tesla forums have questioned suspicious odometer readings.
Tesla is facing a lawsuit in California from an owner who claims the company’s odometers exaggerate how far its vehicles have traveled. According to the complaint, Tesla allegedly does this on purpose to avoid covering warranty repairs and to accelerate the depreciation of its vehicles.
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The lawsuit argues that Tesla does not use mechanical or electronic systems to measure distance. Instead, Tesla reportedly relies on “predictive algorithms, energy consumption metrics, and driver behavior multipliers that manipulate and misrepresent the actual mileage traveled by Tesla vehicles.”
Read: Tesla Finally Launches Cheaper Model Y Juniper In America
By “tying warranty limits and lease mileage caps to inflated odometer readings,” Tesla can allegedly increase repair revenue and reduce its warranty obligations. It can also cause consumers to purchase extended warranties prematurely.
The case was filed by Nyree Hinton, who says they bought a 2020 Tesla Model Y in December 2022 with 36,772 miles on it. Hinton states that from December 14, 2022, to February 6, 2023, they averaged 55.54 miles per day, but between March 26, 2023, and June 28, 2023, this spiked to 72.53 miles per day, just as the Model Y was approaching its warranty expiration. The owner estimates that the average mileage should have been roughly 20 miles fewer per day because of their consistent routine during this time.
Additionally, previous vehicles owned by the plaintiff averaged 6,086 miles over six months, but the Model Y reported 13,228 miles over the same period. The lawsuit claims the mileage shown by Tesla’s odometer can be inflated from 15% to as much as 117%.
The plaintiff notes that while Tesla can measure its vehicles using GPS with incredible precision, a patent from the EV maker apparently says the odometer readings are not direct measurements of distance traveled and use a “miles-to-electrical energy conversion factor” that varies dynamically based on road and traffic conditions.
These Complaints Aren’t New
This isn’t the first time Tesla owners have questioned how mileage is calculated. For years, some have raised concerns about their cars showing unexpectedly high mileage. Some threads on Reddit and Tesla forums claim that these issues have persisted for over two years, with owners trading anecdotes and comparisons that echo the claims in Hinton’s lawsuit.
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