Allegations have surfaced about Tesla designing its odometers to read faster – to accrue mileage faster – in order (per the allegations) to get the cars past warranty faster. So that Tesla does not have to pay for warranty covered repairs.
A class-action lawsuit – Hinton v. Tesla – has been filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The chief plaintiff, Nyree Hinton, claims that rather than registering actual miles driven, Tesla vehicles register odometer readings based on “predictive algorithms” tied to energy consumption. Hinton claims the odometer in his 2020 Model Y read “at least 15 percent fast,” according to an MSNB news story about the lawsuit. He claims that his daily drive of about 20 miles often accrued 70 miles of driving on the odometer, resulting in his Model Y accruing more than 50,000 miles sooner than it otherwise would have and being out-of-warranty sooner than it would have, leaving him to foot a $10,000 bill for repairs that would have been covered under warranty.
If the allegations are true, it’s pretty bad – for Tesla. The possibility of not just a wholesale recall/buyback scenario looms but also catastrophic reputational damage that may not be fixable. Tesla is already on the outs with its core buyer demographic for political reasons; it may soon be on the outs for more traditional reasons. No one likes being gypped. The word is apt because this probably isn’t a case of something inadvertent but rather, deliberate. As in purposeful fraud.
And in more than just one way.
If Teslas overstate how far they’ve been driven, they are also overstating their range. If this is true, then they do not go as far as advertised, which would arguably constitute fraud (again) if it is true. Of course, all EVs are arguably fraudulent in this regard because all of them tout ranges that are at best optimistic because they are predicated on optimum conditions, especially as regards the temperature and the corollary use of accessories such as the AC and heat especially. When it is very cold outside, battery-powered devices are less efficient; they lose charge faster – a problem compounded when accessories such as the heater are used. Both for the passenger compartment and the battery, which must be kept above freezing in order for you to be able to recharge it.
When it is very hot outside, the charge winnows faster because you’re probably using the AC to keep cool – and because the EV’s thermal management system is trying to keep the battery cool. 
I can “expert witness” attest – because I have test driven pretty much every EV on the market – that it is common for the actual driving range to be 10-20 percent less than what is touted when it’s cold or hot. This would be grounds for a federal inquisition – and a mass recall/buyback situation – if we were talking about a gas-engined vehicle that touted say 40 MPG actually delivered 32 MPG (20 percent off) or even a lot less than that. EVs have been allowed to get away with what is on the face of it false advertising – a nicer way of saying gypping people – because they are political vehicles. Tesla can be seen – because it’s true – as the vehicle for sexing up battery powered vehicles. They are so quick! So tech!
Which amounts to: Look! A Squirrel!
In other words, dazzle them with one thing to distract them from other things. Like how far they don’t actually go.
This distraction was really important during the first few years of the push to flood the roads with EVs – for the same reason it was important to flood the airwaves with “safe and effective” when the government-corporate nexus wanted to get as many people as possible injected. But time and experience act like water – the universal solvent – eventually eroding down to the truth.
People – not all, but a large percentage – know they were gypped when it came to the “vaccines” and lots of people understand that EVs are a gyp, too. The range is a lie. “Fast” charging is several lies. Yes, it’s “fast” relative to the hours’ long wait at home. But having to wait 20-30 minutes or longer to get a partial charge isn’t very “fast.” And it isn’t a full charge, which is the part the liars almost never tell people about. Just like they don’t tell people that if you do not have a warm garage and a place to plug the EV in overnight, it will bleed range overnight.
Now we discover they’re rolling the odometers forward. Or at least, that is the allegation leveled at Tesla. If it is proved to be true, it could be the end for Tesla. And maybe for Elon, too. How many grifts does it take before people no longer buy into the grift?
We may soon see.
. . .
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[…] By eric […]
Interesting how most responses assume that the allegations are true. In a time where false claims employing every level of lawfare at Trump and his close advisors, I would begin with the assumption that the charges are just harassment until proven otherwise.
Hi OutofTime,
I test drive new vehicles each week – including EVs. I have personally experienced (and documented) the great disparity – typically at least 10 percent and often 20-plus percent – between advertised range and actual driving range. For whatever that’s worth.
[…] Jeffrey L. Klump Apr 20, 2025 0 By eric […]
[…] Posted on April 20, 2025 by stuartbramhall By eric […]
If an automobile manufacturer had gas vehicles with odometers that rolled forward to avoid paying for warranty covered repairs, some state attorney general or the federal government would likely seek to levy HEAVY fines on that manufacturer. However, since Tesla was a politically favored automobile manufacturer prior to 2025, and CEO Elon Musk is currently with the Trump 2.0 administration, it remains to be seen if Tesla will face federal charges if these allegations of their EVs rolling forward odometers turns out to be true.
Some Democrat state attorney(s) general may seek to file charges against Tesla if those allegations prove true.
There needs to be police chases of cars that have odometers that roll forward, it’s illegal to tamper with odometers.
It is surreptitious speeding.
There are phones, smart ones, I guess, that have speedometers as an app.
Should be pretty accurate, compare and contrast with the digital readout that estimates the speed of the vehicle.
Now odometers are fake and gay too.
So cool.
Elon is such a woman and Trump is just a plain wuss.
You have to tell it like it really is.
How did they get away with it for so long or did they just start doing it?
Most people know how much they drive in a typical day or week. They would certainly notice something was up with the ODO or the range remaining within a week or three of getting a new vehicle.
Hi Brent,
My hypothesis is that Tesla owners have only just now begun to notice because they no longer venerate Elon.
Most Tesla owners seem very conditioned to overlook the many failings of Tesla devices and electric vehicles in general. Musk becoming a “Republican” may finally be the sin that casts him out.
We are WAY overdue on this wave of electric cars to go away. Every thirty years or so, this one has been the worst because of the huge waste and long time period. In the past it was over in two or three years. History repeats itself because people do not learn any lessons from it.
We saw a bit of history repeating itself during COVID too. There was a poll just a few years ago, and around half of Democrats in the country wanted the unvaxxed to not be allowed to go anywhere and/ or be heavily fined. What’s curious is that many people aren’t even outraged that they’ve been LIED to by the government & establishment media about COVID, the draconian measures that were implemented, and the “vaccines”.
I suggest it is the ‘fluoride’
The stuff made from toxic coal soot and sold to our water plants as a tooth benefit. It’s in everything- the American public has been pickled in it for decades.
People are drugged out of their minds tripping balls and don’t even realize it.
Biggest effect is that it makes people not care.. lowers IQ.
“What’s curious is that many people aren’t even outraged”
That is what fluoride does.
It is claimed that Hitler (and his Nazi cohorts) used fluoride to make the prisoners stupid and docile. I surmise that is what fluoridated people cannot get outraged at anything anymore: They are too brain damaged to notice, let alone care enough to fight back.
I agree Shadow, drugged poisoned vaxed psychological warfare via tv programming.
Just to name a few fronts in the war against common folks.
I would hate to be a globalist when/if the people ever start to sober up. 😉
In a note of irony, it these same vaxed masses who are the ones getting sick and dying. After wanting to destroy the lives and livelihoods of those of us who did not want to take said jab, no less. Now, they are going further, by saying it is our fault they are getting sick from the very jab they took, blaming us for not warning them, the very jab they wanted us to take against our will, and were ready to destroy us because we did not! You just cannot make that up!
Think Tesla will get the VW treatment?
Somehow, I doubt that.
Claimed EV range figures are often not much more than rainbows & unicorns fantasy.
A comprehensive test carried out in Europe last year showed that what the manufacturers claim and what actually happens on the road can be as much as 30% apart, and unsurprisingly always in the ‘lower’ direction. And that test did not include driving in extreme cold weather.
Even so, as Eric states above, EVs are protected species, so such ‘minor’ discrepancies are never seriously looked at.
And Elon has proved many times already that he is untouchable. It may be possible for some to get away with one, or maybe two, instances of the kind of BS he routinely pulls. For him though, it’s a never-ending series, with pretty much zero consequences.
Out of curiosity, what would happen if you put taller tires on a Tesla? That is, tires with a higher overall diameter? Wouldn’t that counteract the “rolling forward” of miles?
If it were an analog odometer, yes.
Since it probably isn’t, it would depend on what information Tesla is using to estimate (note I did not say “measure”) the mileage.
If G-POS data is used (likely), such a modification would have no effect, other than reducing the clearance between the tires and the wheel wells. And changing the handling characteristics. And increasing the amount of torque required to accelerate. And all of the other stuff that comes along with that particular mod.
OT: https://www.zerohedge.com/political/fsu-shooter-deputys-stepson-used-her-handgun-attack-caught-video
We need gun control for the police now! If the police were not allowed to have guns, this school shooting would never have happened. You don’t want your kids’ school shot up, do you?
Can you imagine, Eric, if someone was caught rolling BACK odometers in non-EV’s, so as to appear that the vehicle has fewer miles (and wear-and-tear) on the engine? The Feds would pitch a fit, and heads would be rolling! Investigations would take place. But hey, since it is a politically correct Tesla/EV, it all seems to be okay.
Spoke to a accident reconstructionist. Tells me that there are multiple control modules that can read slightly different odometer readings – inside the same car.
If its programmable, its hackable, no?
They cannot be written. If they are programmable it’s once when the processor is configured and that’s only if it’s not a custom ASIC. For a programmable processor it’s typically fuses that are blown physically and not a reprogrammable FPGA.
You’ll often see a discrepancy in speed between the speedometer and the value read from the ECU via an OBD reader. It’s sometimes because different ECUs make different assumptions on things like tire size. Some calculations are considered more important. It’s more important to know speed and distance accurately for fuel delivery but it’s less important to indicate it to the speedometer, which you actually prefer to be slightly in error high so the driver tends to drive slightly slower.
The only way to change this is to actually interrupt the connection using a small gear box you mount between the transmission (or transfer case on most 4WD) and the VSS. It’s a crude way to do it but OEMs try to make these as unhackable as possible primarily because odometer fraud has been a problem for decades.
Odometers Rolled Forward
It’s … Vehicle Saving Time!
Ah ha ha ha … spring forward, y’all.
I’m no Tesla fan, but this fails the smell test. Off by a few percent is entirely likely depending on the technology. Off by 15% on the high side, when Tesla has been around for 17 years with hundreds of thousands of cars made? It defies reason. But I suppose the people claiming it think a man can give birth and there are 37teen genders including horny narwhal, so there’s that.
As others have stated, easily checked. And GPS speedo/odo is no longer an exotic technology, I’m surprised Tesla doesn’t use it vs anything attached to the wheels.
My experience owning and driving hundreds of different cars whose ages ranged from 100 years to new, every speedometer and odometer has a tolerance, and it’s often in the 2-3 percent. Nobody really notices if the odometer accrues 98 or 102 miles when they drive 100. And if you’re driving 65 in a 60, you’re often only driving 61.
If you really want to know you can trust the mile markers on the Interstate to be pretty close. Using a flat and straight section of highway and cruise control you can get a very good approximation with a stop watch. Try with one mile, 2 mile and 5 miles to start. Going up to 10 or more miles would be better but that distance introduces increasing error in being able to hold steady speed. The cruise control (or your foot if you don’t have that) and wind, road grade and what-not will have its own tolerances. You’ll get better data using a five random one mile stretches over a single 5 miles long run. If you’re careful in your measurements the mile marker and stop watch method is more accurate than GPS for this.
Yep, I used to do exactly that. After building a new rod it is wise to check what the old speedo hooked to the new trans driving the new 3rd member is indicating. Then it can be corrected with a small gearbox or just doing some mental math. If it’s within 5mph at highway speed I’ve always considered that good enough.
BTW, if you want the highest accuracy you do need GPS. But use it to find two very precise end points. So take a starting position by sitting still for about an hour averaging it’s location. Then move exactly one or two or so miles away and find this spot very precisely using another hour or so averaging. Once you know two points are exactly one miles (for example) apart using GPS you will know this is within about 9 feet of exact. Then you can do the exactly 60 MPH indicated and will know how good the speedometer and your ability (or the cruise) really are.
Federal standards for speedometer accuracy are plus-or-minus 10% vs. actual
Which is part of why the cops will pretty reliably (even though technically they don’t have to) give you about 5-7 mph on the highway before writing you a tickie, but only give 2-3 mph in town.
Just for fun once upon a time, I put my GPS handheld with external antenna in my car to see how the odometer matched up. Turns out for every 400 miles on the odometer, the GPS showed 1 extra mile.
Did you have oversized tires? Usually a GPS receiver will underreport mileage because it tends to round off corners unless it has a very high sampling rate. Most consumer grade units update position 1 to 5 times per second. A high performance GNSS receiver will update about 15 to 20 times per second. The more samples the better the track and truer distance traveled. Of course a long and straight path will negate the variation, especially if you maintain constant speed.
No, just the standard size tires on my Mazda 3. I used a Garmin GPSMap 60 with an external antenna that was stuck on the roof.
It’s probably just the simple range thing, not a warranty conspiracy.
There’s no requirement in the FMVSS for speedometer accuracy in passenger cars, although in many other markets there such a requirement and for commercial trucks in the U.S. there is.
When there is the rule is that indicated speed must be equal or faster than actual, meaning you’re going slower than indicated. A lot of global vehicles have notoriously bad speedos for this reason. Read any forums about Japanese motorcycles to see this is true.
Elon became a billionaire by being a rent-seeking, grifter. He’s no dummy though. He coddled up to Trump (and certainly helped him win) just in the nick of time. I don’t see the Trump admin’s DOJ going after him. It’s going to require civil action. The political winds have shifted against Elon by the Tesla-owning Left. A left-leaning California Jury may be very useful if fraud was in fact committed here.
Wow the ev chargers at our Whole Foods are mostly empty these days, wonder if most people charge at home. Right? They must because i also see so many more of these on the road now.
Your experience is like the best ad for a gas car. And the odometer lawsuit is not at all surprising.
Will people on the political left who’ve been vandalizing Teslas over the past few months raise a stink over Tesla rolling forward odometers on their EVs if those allegations prove true? And with this push from some states for people to get an EV, will Teslas be excluded from that push for political reasons?
Curious this is just coming up now.
Likewise – very simple to document and prove or disprove.
It’s hard to believe no one had noticed this in the past decade of Tesla having been in production.
Hi BID,
I have to agree with you. Why now?
And who exactly is Nyree Hinton? Is this the same Mr. Hinton that is part of the Capital Group? I smell Soros money all over this.
GPS speedometer/odometer. $61 on Amazon. Good for custom builds with oversized tires.
https://www.amazon.com/ELING-Waterproof-Speedometer-Motorcycle-Backlight/dp/B074J9MFQV/
Thing is, Tesla can just say their odometers aren’t calibrated to lab measurement tolerances. In much the same way you can get out of a speeding ticket by asking to see the radar calibration records, if they exist. Depending on the judge and his lawyer’s ability, that would probably hold up.
Buy now, before tariffs go up.
It’s one example of cheap Chinese tech that will cost twice as much to make here, if it can be done at all.
Please. Labor is such a tiny component of electronics manufacturing as to be negligible. A bigger factor is local sales and income taxes. And of course envirocommie laws. It’s not going to double because of tariffs, it probably will increase as the multi variable calculus of pricing works itself out. If you’re going to bash Darth Tangelo do it over his Israel fetish, or deporting without due process.
Personally, if he’s going to shortcut due process, I’d rather he did it to communist activist judges and lawyers, attacking the “untouchable” government that Soros and co have purchased. A short stay in front of a firing squad and the whole lot might learn to revere constitutional protections.