Tesla’s self-driving system, autopilot, and its flaws, have not yet been investigated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Tesla’s driver-assist technologies, Autopilot and “full self-driving” are already being investigated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration following reports of unexpected braking that occurs “without warning, at random, and often repeatedly in a single drive.”
The crash occurred about lunchtime on Thanksgiving, snarling traffic on Interstate 80 east of the Bay Bridge as two lanes of traffic were closed for about 90 minutes as many people traveled to holiday events. Four ambulances were called to the scene.
It is not aware of a government investigation regarding the safety of its autopilot feature, and does not think it is riskier to drive if you have it.
Tesla said it “has received requests from the Department of Justice for documents related to Tesla’s Autopilot and FSD features” in a January 31 public filing.
The best known feature of autopilot is its automatic steering that can keep a car within a lane on roads. Some drivers say it decreases their fatigue on long roadtrips. A self- driving car can be steered on the streets, but also stop for traffic signals and make turns to get to its destination. Drivers have been impressed with its abilities but alarmed by its flaws.
Autopilot has long been controversial. The National Transportation Safety Board previously found that the technology was partially to blame in a fatal crash.
42% of users of the autopilot system were willing to let the system drive the car without them watching what was happening.
Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” system is intended to someday work on city streets, but despite its wide rollout it is still officially in a developmental “beta” program. A car for sale can’t drive itself.
Waymo, the self-driving subsidiary of Google’s parent company, stopped using the term “self-driving” in January 2021 because it said the phrase was being used inaccurately, giving the public a false impression of what driver-assist systems are capable of.
The Dark Side of Tesla: Dan O’Dowd, a Silicon Valley Tech CEO, Campaigning to Stop Tesla and Using Full Self-Driving
The commercial, which will be aired in Washington, DC, Austin, Tallahassee, Albany, Atlanta and Sacramento does not paint Tesla in the best light. The ad is part of a multimillion dollar campaign. Its founder, Dan O’Dowd, is a California tech CEO who has dedicated millions of his own money (and a failed US Senate race) to the cause.
A fake baby in a stroller, a fake car running over a child-sized dummy, and a car with Full Self- Driving mode turned on, are part of a series of tests by the Dawn Project. In the ad, the car swerves into oncoming traffic, zooms past stopped school buses, and cruises through “do not enter” signs.
O’Dowd received a cease and desist letter from Tesla over the video, claiming he and the Dawn Project were “disparaging Tesla’s commercial interests and disseminating defamatory information to the public.”
O’dowd replied with a post that had 1,736 words, in which he defended his tests, poked fun at Musk and others, and blamed the cease-and-desist.
The software developer, who sold to the military, is going to use millions of dollars in order to block the Full Self- Driving feature from being used. He is running national ads and posting online videos displaying the possible dangers of Musk’s technology. He also ran an unsuccessful one-issue campaign for the US Senate on the same message.
On December 31, Musk replied to a tweet by @WholeMarsBlog which said “users with more than 10,000 miles on FSD Beta should be given the option to turn off the steering wheel nag.”
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/12/business/super-bowl-ad-tesla-full-self-driving/index.html
O’Dowd’s War on the Progress of Driver-Assisted Software: The Washington Post re-examines Musk’s Defenders
Green Hills Software is owned and operated by O’dowd. Some of Musk’s defenders claim O’Dowd has a conflict of interest as one of its customers is Intel-owned Mobileye, which makes a computer chip to run driver-assisted software, the Washington Post reported.