Founder of The Dawn Project Dan O’Dowd has commented on a Florida jury ruling that Tesla should pay $243m in compensation for a fatal 2019 crash involving its Autopilot software.
Dan’s comments were covered in The Telegraph on 1 August 2025, and can be found here and below.
Dan O’Dowd commented: “Today’s ruling is a heavy blow to Elon Musk and Tesla, who for years have falsely advertised the safety of Tesla’s self-driving software while knowing about its critical safety defects.
“Innocent people have paid for Elon Musk’s lies about Tesla’s self-driving software with their lives. Elon Musk became the world’s richest man by overhyping Tesla’s self-driving software and deceiving safety-conscious Tesla customers about the software’s reliability. The court is right to punish Musk and Tesla for their relentless lies and false promises about Tesla’s self-driving software.
“If Tesla had restricted Autopilot to the roads it was designed for, this tragic crash would never have happened. It is unacceptable that Tesla still allows Autopilot to be used on roads with cross traffic, six years after Benavides’ death.
“NHTSA must now step in and ban Tesla Autopilot from roads that Tesla admits it’s not safe for before more people are killed.”