Tesla sent a cease-and-desist letter to an advocacy group critical of self-driving vehicles after it posted a video showing a Tesla car running over a child-sized mannequin.
The video commercial, produced by the Dawn Project and tweeted earlier this month, shows Telsa’s automated cars running over the mannequins at speeds of up to 20mph.
The criticism of Tesla’s self-driving technology, which is still in the “beta” testing phase, spurred a storm of praise from critics and scorn from Tesla fans.
“You’re a biased moron, Dan. Training data is based on real life, not your fake garbage ‘test.’ How many tests did you do that worked until you were able to create one that didn’t?” entrepreneur Scott Wainner tweeted.
Some Tesla fans went so far as to attempt to recreate the commercial’s test themselves.
We plan to run over the child on Saturday. Mom is on board as we explained how safe it will be.
— Whole Mars Catalog (@WholeMarsBlog) August 11, 2022
Many commenters suggested that I should have the car run over me, so I will do that first. We’ll text with adults and dummies first. For the kid part they won’t need to be in road.
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After the tweet of the commercial went viral, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued a statement urging people not to involve children in dangerous situations where they could be run over by a car.
YouTube, in turn, removed a score of videos of Tesla drivers attempting the test.
Dan O’Dowd, CEO of Green Hills Software and founder of the Dawn Project, voiced his concern about the safety and reliability of the new Tesla technology, going so far as to call Tesla CEO Elon Musk a “master scammer.”
“This letter is so pathetic in terms of whining: Mr. Free Speech Absolutist, just a crybaby hiding behind his lawyers,” Mr. O’Dowd told The Washington Post.
His Green Hills Software has its own interests though.
Tesla fans have pointed out that the firm does business with many of Tesla’s competitors such as General Motors and Ford, giving him a financial incentive to bash Tesla.
The letter from Tesla, first obtained by The Post, claims that the video misrepresented the capabilities of the self-driving technology.
“It has come to our attention that you, personally, and The Dawn Project have been disparaging Tesla’s commercial interest and disseminating defamatory information to the public regarding the capabilities of Tesla’s Full Self Driving (FSD) (Beta) technology,” Dinna Eskin, Tesla senior director and deputy general counsel, writes in the letter.
The battle over the Dawn Project’s commercial is the latest in Tesla’s battle to make a real, fully self-driving vehicle.
Tesla has been under investigation by the NHTSA since last year over the technology.
The agency released numbers in June that showed Tesla’s autopilot systems were involved in 273 crashes, five of which were fatalities, over the past year.
Some former Tesla employees and others have accused Mr. Musk of rushing the project for financial gain with the recent collection of high-profile autopilot crashes being the result.
Mr. Musk has said that autopilot is overall safer, even though some crashes will always occur.
“Essentially, passive Autopilot (car intervenes only when crash probability is high) cuts crashes in half. Active Autopilot (car is driving itself) cuts crashes in half again,” Mr. Musk tweeted. “Doesn’t mean there are no crashes, but, on balance, Autopilot is unequivocally safer.”
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.
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