August 6 (Reuters) - Elon Musk and Tesla are facing a shareholder lawsuit alleging securities fraud, with plaintiffs claiming the company concealed significant safety risks associated with its self-driving vehicles, including the Robotaxi, according to reports.

The proposed class-action lawsuit was filed late Monday. In late June, Tesla conducted its first public demonstration of autonomous taxis at its Austin, Texas headquarters, revealing multiple operational issues including speeding, sudden braking, curb collisions, wrong-lane entries, and instances where passengers were dropped off in the middle of multi-lane roads.

Following the demonstration, Tesla's stock fell 6.1% over two trading sessions, erasing approximately $68 billion in market value.

Shareholders allege that Musk and Tesla repeatedly exaggerated the capabilities and commercial viability of the company's Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology, artificially inflating financial projections and share prices. This includes statements made by Musk during the April 22 earnings call where he promised that "Tesla is all-in on launching Robotaxi services in Austin by June," along with company claims about achieving "geographically scalable safe deployment across use cases" for its autonomous systems.

(Musk's response)

On Tuesday, Musk responded on X, criticizing the plaintiffs' attorneys: "These lawsuits are never investor-driven. They're always orchestrated by ambulance-chasing class-action lawyers looking to skim profits from settlements. They're scum of the earth. The worst humans I've ever encountered."

In addition to Musk and Tesla, CFO Vaibhav Taneja and former finance chief Zachary Kirkhorn were also named as defendants in the lawsuit.

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