Back in 2021, if you were buying yourself a Tesla, you could’ve shelled out an extra $10,000 to get the company’s FSD semi-autonomous software — at least, that’s what the contract said when you bought one. In fact, at the time, Tesla owners had to qualify with a “Safety Score” that judged their driving, with only the safest drivers allowed access to FSD. Unfortunately for Tesla, an owners deemed unworthy of access to FSD happened to be an attorney who took the whole company to arbitration. Even more unfortunate for the company, he won.
Marc Dobin, an attorney out of Washington, took Tesla to arbitration over FSD access in his then newly purchased 2021 Tesla Model Y. He argued that Tesla hadn’t disclosed the Safety Score system, and that he was prevented from using the software he’d paid $10,000 for. Tesla, according to Dobin on his blog as well as an email sent to Jalopnik, made very little argument at all in response — sending only a single witness whose testimony was largely unhelpful. As a result, Dobin won nearly $18,600 from the automaker.
The arbitration paved a path, but it’s got tolls
Dobin’s Tesla, being a 2021 Model Y, also ran on the now-outdated “HW3” hardware kit — a kit that CEO Elon Musk has since announced will never support the entirety of the company’s FSD software. Between the undisclosed barrier of the Safety Score and the eventual reveal of HW3’s lack of capability, the arbitrator handed Dobin a victory in arbitration. The attorney hopes that the cost of the process has made Tesla more amenable to refunds, but that’s still a very open — and highly optimistic, knowing Tesla — question. We won’t really know until someone else tries to get a refund, given that Tesla no longer does the whole “media” thing.
Unfortunately for other Tesla buyers in similar circumstances, following in Dobin’s footsteps may not be easy. The Safety Score is no longer a hard barrier to FSD use, for one, but the bigger issue is the sheer cost of arbitration. As a result of the judgment, Tesla had to pay the $7,975 in arbitration fees that had accrued, but that’s only because Tesla lost — you’re liable for your own expenses and attorney fees as an arbitration goes along. If you happen to be an attorney, that may be reasonable, but for many it’s an insurmountable barrier between them and justice for predatory business practices.
Dobin’s arbitration is laudable, he got his money back for FSD and his arbitration fees covered, and he hopes that in doing so he paved a path that others may walk to get their own refunds. But it’s a path that not many can walk, and that’s no fault of Dobin’s — it’s the fault of contracts that enforce individual arbitration rather than allowing for class-action lawsuits. If you can follow in his footsteps, it’s worth trying to get reimbursed, but it should really be easier than this.
