SANTA BARBARA, CA – Safety advocacy group The Dawn Project will broadcast a public safety message during Super Bowl LVII, outlining the critical safety defects of Tesla Full Self-Driving and the significant threat this software poses to road safety. The Super Bowl ad is the latest in a multi-million dollar advertising campaign The Dawn Project has conducted since early 2022.
The Dawn Project’s ad will be broadcast during the game to millions of viewers, politicians and regulators in Washington D.C, and state capitals including California, New York, Texas, Florida and Georgia.
The Super Bowl ad will be followed by a series of television and print ads calling for urgent action over the deployment of Tesla’s dangerous Full Self-Driving software on public roads.
The ad, which can be viewed here, publicizes the findings of safety tests conducted by The Dawn Project which uncovered the following critical safety defects in Tesla’s Full Self-Driving, which will:
- Run down a child in a school crosswalk
- Ignore ‘Do Not Enter’ and ‘Road Closed’ signs
- Overtake stopped school buses
- Speed in school zones
- Hit a child in a stroller
- Run over children crossing the road
- Swerve into oncoming traffic
- Ignore road signs warning it to slow down for sharp bends
- Drive on the wrong side of the road
Watch The Dawn Project’s Super Bowl ad below:
The Dawn Project is urging the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to immediately turn off Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software until all of the critical safety defects we and others have identified are fixed.
Dan O’Dowd, Founder of The Dawn Project, commented: “Tesla’s reckless deployment of Full Self-Driving software on public roads is a major threat to public safety. Elon Musk has released software that will run down children in school crosswalks, swerve into oncoming traffic and hit a baby in a stroller to all Tesla owners in North America.”
“NHTSA must act now to immediately switch off Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software on public roads in the interest of public safety.”
“Tesla has known for more than six months that its Full Self-Driving software will run down a child in a crosswalk, along with hundreds of other critical safety defects reported by us and other beta testers.”
“Tesla continues to focus on features and marketing gimmicks, not fixing critical safety defects. Elon even stated that Tesla’s priorities were Smart Summon, Autopark and Optimus, not making sure that FSD will not run down children. It is clear that the priorities at Tesla are wrong, and it is time for the regulator to step in and switch the software off until all of the issues we have identified are fixed.”
The Dawn Project’s Super Bowl commercial is the latest in a series of ads from The Dawn Project, publicizing the group’s safety tests of Tesla Full Self-Driving. The safety advocacy’s first television advertisement, ‘Test Track’, released in August 2022 to widespread international media attention, exposed fundamental safety flaws in Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software, and revealed that the software would run down a child mannequin. The group has since published a series of full-page advertisements in The New York Times highlighting the dangers to all road users posed by Tesla Full Self-Driving.
The results of the safety tests shocked the public as well as causing widespread consternation amongst the Tesla community, with NHTSA forced to issue a statement warning against using children to test automated driving technology after Tesla supporters sought to disparage the ad by using real children as crash test dummies. However, NHTSA has failed to take action to prevent real children from being used as crash test dummies on public roads.
The Dawn Project believes that Tesla’s deployment of its Full Self-Driving software on public roads is unacceptable. Surveys conducted by the group revealed that 93% of registered voters agree that a Full Self-Driving car that would run over a child in a crosswalk must be banned from public roads immediately.
Tesla previously attempted to suppress The Dawn Project’s findings by issuing a cease and desist letter against the safety advocacy group on August 11, 2022, a copy of which can be read here. Dan O’Dowd’s public response to the letter can be read here.
The Super Bowl ad forms a key component of The Dawn Project’s strategy to demonstrate the dangers of Tesla Full Self-Driving to politicians and regulators. The safety advocacy group is also taking out a series of full page ads in Politico and running additional TV ads in Washington DC, where regulators are located, calling for Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software to be switched off until the critical safety defects are fixed.