A California billionaire has stepped up attacks on Tesla by running a Super Bowl ad questioning the safety of the automaker's self-driving technology.
The 30-second spot shows the electric cars crashing into child-sized mannequins, passing by a stopped school bus, and hitting strollers in a parking lot while a narrator proclaims that “Tesla's full self-driving is endangering the public.”
The announcement is the latest in what has been a year-long campaign by technology executive Dan O'Dowd to ban Tesla's full self-driving (FSD) technology from road use and pressure lawmakers to increase the technology security scrutiny. O'Dowd founded a campaign called Project Dawn to expose Tesla, as well as bugs and security flaws in other computer systems.
The organization ran a full-page ad in the New York Times and posted similar videos online, but the most recent video was posted during one of the country's most-watched sporting events, in which a 30-second commercial reportedly cost 6 million dollars. $7 million.
“Elon Musk has released software that will run over children in school crosswalks, swerve into oncoming traffic, and hit a baby in a stroller for all Tesla owners in North America,” O'Dowd said in a statement. “Tesla's reckless deployment of full self-driving software on public roads is a major threat to public safety.”
O'Dowd, founder of Green Hills Software, a Santa Barbara-based company that makes computer operating systems, also ran an unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. Senate last year that mainly focused about Tesla's self-driving technology, calling it “reckless” and “unsafe.”
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Project Dawn announcement and campaign. Musk has in the past called O'Dowd and his criticism “crazy” a tweetwhich was preceded by a bat and poop emoji.
Tesla and Project Dawn have clashed under similar circumstances before, when the campaign released another video last year that also claimed that Tesla's self-driving software would run over children in tests conducted by the group.
In August, Tesla issued a cease-and-desist letter to Project Dawn, demanding that it remove the video and issue a formal retraction. Tesla also accused the group of “misleading ads” and flagged questions about the test and whether the self-driving software was activated at the time of the testing.
O'Dowd publicly rejected the letter, calling it “bizarre” and defended the testing conducted by his organization, saying its data has been made publicly accessible.
“We have disclosed the methodology followed during the safety testing and a full analysis of the results, along with signed and notarized affidavits from the participants,” O'Dowd wrote in response to Tesla. “Any observer can review and judge for themselves whether our testing was 'results-based' or whether the results should lead us all to demand that FSD be taken off the road until its many life-threatening defects are fixed.”
Dawn Project's newest ad debuted during the Super Bowl in Washington, DC; Sacrament; NY; Austin, Texas; Tallahassee, Florida; and Atlanta and, according to the group, was aimed at appealing to lawmakers to ban Tesla's FSD.
In the ad, a Tesla vehicle is seen driving past “Do Not Enter” and “Road Closed” signs, and passing a parked school bus with stop signs. It also shows the vehicle crashing into mannequins and baby strollers.
As of Monday, Tesla has not directly addressed the announcement or contacted Project Dawn about the video, a spokesperson for the organization told The Times.
However, shortly after the commercial aired on Sunday, Musk responded on Twitter to comments on the announcement, stating that it would “greatly increase public awareness that a Tesla can drive itself (monitored for now).”
In another tweet that called the tests carried out by Project Dawn “fake,” Musk responded with a laughing emoji.
In a statement, Project Dawn says it is appealing to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Department of Motor Vehicles to ban the software until flaws in the system are identified and fixed.
“Tesla continues to focus on features and marketing gimmicks, not on fixing critical safety flaws,” O'Dowd said in the statement.
The announcement is just the latest challenge Tesla has faced in recent months.
On Thanksgiving Day, surveillance video obtained by the Intercept showed a Tesla Model S changing lanes on the San Francisco Bay Bridge and suddenly stopping, causing an eight-car crash.
In August, the California DMV accused Tesla of falsely advertising its self-driving technology.
The feature, which is available for $15,000, is supposed to allow the vehicle to drive on highways, city streets and country roads on its own while obeying traffic laws.
But according to the DMV complaint, Teslas currently cannot “operate as autonomous vehicles.”
This feature, however, has been a central part of the company's future. In June, Musk claimed that without FSD, Tesla is “worth basically zero.”
