new york
CNN
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Tech entrepreneur Dan O’Dowd, a fierce critic of Tesla, isn’t putting the brakes on his campaign against Tesla’s self-driving software.
O’Dowd’s “The Dawn Project,” which claims to want to make software systems safer for humanity, launched a similar campaign during last year’s Super Bowl to encourage consumers to buy electric vehicle manufacturers during the Super Bowl. has aired two ads asking people to boycott its products and inventory. .
“Buying either would put money in (Tesla founder) Elon’s (Musk) pocket to fund his dangerous self-driving experiments,” a spokesperson for the Dawn Project told CNN on Sunday. Ta.
“Tesla has repeatedly failed to address flaws in its flawed self-driving software,” O’Dowd said in a statement Sunday. “When you buy a new Tesla, you are funding and enabling Elon Musk to put a dangerous, unfinished product on the road…We believe that Tesla and Elon Musk have put pressure on Tesla and Elon Musk to do the right thing and remove their faulty software from our roads. But the only thing that will put pressure on Tesla and Elon Musk to do the right thing is It’s like denying them your money.”
Tesa did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.
Last year, the group produced an ad suggesting that Tesla cars use fully self-driving features. In a series of video tests by The Dawn Project, cars hit child-sized dolls and fake babies in strollers in school crosswalks.
“Two months after the ad aired, there was an accident where a child got off a school bus and was hit,” O’Dowd told CNN in a phone interview. “It’s completely intolerable. Why doesn’t Tesla turn off its self-driving features on roads it knows are unsafe? This one thing will save lives and cost Tesla nothing.” .”
O’Dowd is president and CEO of Green Hills Software, a software company based in Santa Barbara, California. In 2022, he unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate solely on the issue of Tesla’s self-driving software.
According to Tesla’s instruction manual, Tesla’s driver assistance features, including Autopilot, Enhanced Autopilot, and Full Self-Driving, “further reduce the driver’s burden and make common maneuvers like changing lanes and parking easier. “It is designed to do so.” But Mr O’Dowd said the Dawn project had “hundreds of hours of video” showing the feature malfunctioning in various road conditions.
Your Tesla owner’s manual has an entire section listing limitations and warnings about these programs. For example, the Autosteer feature is “particularly likely to not work as intended” on hills, roads with sharp turns, in direct sunlight, or when shadows obstruct lane markings.
The company’s fully self-driving system is still in the “beta” program stage of formal development. Tesla cars on the market are not capable of self-driving, and the company has warned drivers that its self-driving program will never make the cars fully autonomous.
The fully self-driving feature can malfunction when multi-lane right turns are required, on windy roads, construction sites, and when “interacting with pedestrians, cyclists, and other road users.” The instruction manual warns that it is expensive. “Always be prepared to take immediate action. Failure to follow these instructions may result in damage, serious injury, or death.”
This year’s Dawn Project ad incorporates “actual crash footage from victims of Tesla’s self-driving software,” the group said in a news release. According to The Dawn Project, the clip reportedly shows two separate incidents involving Tesla cars with Autopilot activated. In the first, a vehicle rams a semi-trailer into his truck at an intersection. In the second, a vehicle jumps a stop sign and crashes into a parked car.
“Tesla escapes responsibility for Autopilot accidents by pointing to a note buried deep in the owner’s manual that says Autopilot is only safe on highways,” the ad reads.
The second ad alludes to an incident in which a “self-driving Tesla overtook a stopped school bus” and injured a child. “And yet, Tesla does nothing,” the ad continues.
O’Dowd told CNN that The Dawns Project’s Super Bowl ad last year energized the debate over Tesla’s self-driving capabilities. The goal this year is to make consumers more aware of being active with their wallets, he said.
“Anxiety and tension have become the default,” O’Dowd said. “As opposed to two years ago, the response was, “This is the coolest new technology!” But we’re not yet at the point where people say this product shouldn’t be on the street. We need people to understand that they are buying a product that doesn’t work.”
A spokesperson for The Dawn Project told CNN that this year’s campaign cost $552,000, slightly lower than the $598,000 the group spent on ads for the last Super Bowl. That’s what it means. The media market in which commercials are aired will also decrease and become smaller. Last year, the Dawn Project traveled to Washington, DC, the most populous state capital of Atlanta, and Austin, Texas. Tallahassee, Florida. Albany, New York. and Sacramento, California. This year, the ads will also air in Washington, D.C., and Dover, Delaware. Traverse City, Michigan. and Santa Barbara, California.
O’Dowd said The Dawn Project secured a larger budget this year in anticipation of purchasing advertising space in Sacramento. However, CBS Sacramento refused to air the ad, stating that “advertisements that advocate social causes or issues are not permitted,” according to a spokesperson for the Dawn Project.
CBS Sacramento has not responded to CNN’s request for comment.
A spokesperson for the Dawn Project said, “Although we’re broadcasting in fewer territories, we’ve doubled our airtime this year by running two commercials instead of one,” adding that Washington is “more focused on politicians and federal regulators.” It’s our home base, so that’s our main focus.”
O’Dowd said Traverse City was chosen for the ad buy because Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg lives in the area, and Delaware was chosen because it is President Joe Biden’s hometown. Stated. Mr. Biden owns a private residence in Wilmington, Delaware.
Tesla and Musk have long been the subject of federal scrutiny over the automaker’s Autopilot feature. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating crashes involving Tesla vehicles using various driver assistance features, including a series of crashes with emergency vehicles at other accident scenes. .
In December, Tesla recalled nearly all of its 2 million vehicles following a two-year NHTSA investigation into about 1,000 crashes in which Autopilot was activated. The agency said the Autopilot system provides drivers with a false sense of security and could be easily exploited in certain dangerous situations where Tesla’s technology may not be safe on the road. Tesla issues an over-the-air software update that limits the use of Autopilot’s Autosteer feature if the driver does not repeatedly indicate that they are ready to resume control of the vehicle while it is turned on. did.
CNN’s Ramishah Maruf and Chris Isidore contributed to this report.