In June, O’Dowd teamed up with prominent Tesla fanboy Ross Gerber, a Santa Monica investment manager, to take a ride together in Gerber’s FSD-equipped Tesla. O’Dowd said that after he sent videos to NHTSA, he spoke with several NHTSA officials over Zoom who said they have an investigation underway but couldn’t discuss it until it’s complete.Īsked for comment, NHTSA reiterated the message: “NHTSA’s Autopilot investigation remains open, and the agency generally does not comment on open investigations.” Because Full Self-Driving requires human attention and therefore does not fully drive itself, the California Department of Motor Vehicles says it is investigating whether Tesla is fraudulently marketing the product. Full Self-Driving, a far more expensive option, is marketed as a $15,000 system that can handle city traffic, including traffic signals and turns at intersections. That tally comes from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which also reports 840 Autopilot/FSD-related crashes over the same period.Īutopilot is similar to the driver-assistance programs sold by other car manufacturers, offering automated cruise control, lane keeping and lane changes. He notes that since 2021, at least 23 people have died in crashes involving Autopilot or Full Self-Driving systems. He’s personally offended, he said, that what he calls Tesla’s half-baked automated systems are being allowed on the nation’s highways before serious flaws have been fixed through off-road testing. So far, he said, he’s spent $10 million on a campaign to persuade Tesla to fix what he sees as its safety problems, and to push for government regulations if it doesn’t. Dan O’Dowd, the wealthy, tech-savvy activist who founded and self-funds the Dawn Project, said he wants to ensure that “the safety-critical systems that everyone’s life depends on are fail-safe and can’t be hacked.”Īlthough O’Dowd’s stated goal is brand-agnostic, his main target since launching the Dawn Project in 2021 has been Tesla and its controversial Autopilot and Full Self-Driving systems. It’s the latest salvo from activist organization the Dawn Project, which publishes videos aimed at showing how badly Tesla’s automated driving technology can behave. And the car drives on, as if nothing happened. The front end whacks the mannequin, sending it flying into the air. The car’s driver monitoring system doesn’t issue any warnings. As a child-size mannequin stands in a traffic lane on a rural two-lane road, a Tesla in Full Self-Driving mode barrels toward it.
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