Is upaya a lie?

According to upaya, the doctrine of 'skillful means', as it appears in the Lotus Sutra, was the Buddha *lying* when he said that there are three vehicles? Presumably he knew there was only one: so why wasn't his deception evil? I am referring to the claim in e.g. the parable of there being three chariots, when there is in fact only one. Or Shariputra's claim that he thought he was "deceived" when believing he could not be a Buddha. I believe it's generally characterized as "deception" according to the scholastic tradition that is based on the lotus sutra.