Tesla FSD "maligned" at Super Bowl, calls for government ban to block it
Yesterday, Green Hill Software publicly criticized Tesla's FSD Beta technology during the Super Bowl, saying the software was seriously flawed. The company ran an ad video "for Tesla" during the game, showing the thrilling moments during the FSD Beta test, including crashing into a dummy and a baby carriage.
Green Mountain Software did so in order to call on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, ordered a ban on the use of the software. It is reported that the Super Bowl advertising costs up to $ 7 million per 30 seconds, major brands have used the event to promote their brands, the current Disney and Poundland, have also been placed.
Watch The Dawn Project’s #SuperBowl ad demonstrate critical safety defects in @Tesla Full Self-Driving. 6 months ago we reported FSD would run down a child. Tesla hasn't even fixed that! To focus their attention, @NHTSAgov must turn off FSD until Tesla fixes all safety defects. pic.twitter.com/AxJbN5oOSr
— Dan O'Dowd (@RealDanODowd) February 11, 2023
After the ad aired, the company's head Dan O'Dowd (Dan O'Dowd) also tweeted the ad video, while O'Dowd tweeted, "6 months ago Tesla had issued a report that Teslas using FSD Beta software would run over children on the road, but Tesla did not solve the NHTSA must ban the FSD Beta software until Tesla fixes all safety hazards."
In fact, this is not the first time O'Dowd has used public opinion to attack Tesla. Previously, in January 2022
He took out a full-page ad in the New York Times attacking Tesla's FSD system. The ad showed a Model Y crashing into two dummies crossing the street with the caption, "Don't be a safety crash dummy for Tesla. At the time, O'Dowd also tweeted at Musk, calling FSD "the worst software ever created by a Fortune 500 company. Musk retorted, "What Green Hill Software does is a bunch of crap.
In August 2022, O'Dowd also released a video of a Tesla crashing into a child mannequin, which also sparked a hot debate. At the time, many Tesla fans posted their own test videos to clear Tesla's name, some even using real children for the test, which raised safety concerns and eventually forced the video platform to remove some of the content. Tesla sent a cease-and-desist letter to O'Dowd, accusing him of "disparaging Tesla's business interests and disseminating defamatory information to the public. However, O'Dowd disagreed and defended his test in a 1,736-word post, showing the public the dangers that Tesla's technology can pose.
Just recently, Tesla announced that it has hired Brandon Ehrhart, a former executive at U.S. satellite radio provider Dish Network, as the company's general counsel and corporate secretary. Musk has also tweeted, "Tesla is forming a core litigation department where we can directly initiate and enforce lawsuits. The team will report directly to me personally." Tesla's decision shows that the company is working to protect its interests and fight unjust lawsuits and attacks, a move that, even in our country, has been received with some success.
Of course, while Musk and Tesla have always prided themselves on FSD, they actually admit that it is not perfect, saying that its currently enabled FSD feature is not yet capable of autonomous driving, and that drivers still need to be fully focused, with their hands on the wheel, ready to take over the vehicle.
Excited to have Brandon Ehrhart join the Tesla team as our General Counsel & to have Dinna Eskin continue in a leadership role in Tesla Legal, as we build a world class team!
— Tesla (@Tesla) February 10, 2023
In September last year, Tesla was hit with a class action lawsuit in the U.S. for "falsely advertising" the Autopilot feature, allegedly misleading the public about the basic version of Assisted Driving, the enhanced version of Automated Assisted Driving and FSD technology. In this case, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California accepted the lawsuit, and ultimately the State of California passed a new law prohibiting Tesla from calling its software "fully automated driving.
Objectively speaking, FSD is also in continuous progress, Tesla also did not release this "beast" from the cage without restraint, and humans must always be in the opportunity and risk, in order to continue to move forward.
