Green Hills Software CEO and The Dawn Project founder Dan O’Dowd, who took out a full-page ad targeting Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) software in the Sunday, January 16th paper edition of the New York Times, on Tuesday sat down for an interview on the CNBC‘s Squawk on the Street.
O’Dowd at first steered the conversation towards the dangers of linking life essentials up to the internet, a fallible network that is regularly targeted by hackers.
“What we’re doing is connecting up the things that our lives depend on [to the internet]. The power grid, cars, water treatment plants, hospitals — they’re all being connected to the internet and it’s all […] easily hackable,” said O’Dowd.
There are “huge problems” with self-driving cars, according to the Green Hills Software CEO.
“If a hacker gets control of a self-driving car,” he explains, “all the software’s the same. If you find out how to hack one of them, you can hack all of them, literally, and take control of a million Teslas.”
O’Dowd posits that a hacker could then drive the cars remotely and put millions of occupants in danger.
A teenage cybersecurity specialist last week revealed he was able to hack into 25+ Tesla cars in 13 countries without the owners knowing, but could not actually drive a “hacked” Tesla remotely or mechanically intervene with someone’s driving. The exploit used was not a vulnerability within Tesla’s infrastructure or software, but rather a product of user error. No videos or other evidence was demonstrated of the supposed hack, however.
Pulled back onto the subject of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software, which is currently in beta, O’Dowd said, “this software, it doesn’t work.” He directed those interested in proof to more YouTube videos from FSD beta testers.
The Dawn Project decided to go after Tesla for the potential dangers of FSD with a full-page ad in The New York Times after watching all of 22 YouTube videos. “We’re doing more,” O’Dowd said when asked if that was a big enough sample size.
Tragic case of ego/ability>>1
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 18, 2022
When asked point-blank whether he has a “huge financial interest” in a FSD competitor and if that is part of the reason he is so critical of the Tesla tech, O’Dowd initially denied the allegation but then said, “I mean, a financial interest in a way.”
“Sure, we’re a competitor in a moderate way,” he said. “I don’t make self-driving software. I make software that people who make self-driving software use to do their job.”
Green Hills Software is a supplier to numerous legacy automakers, including the likes of Toyota, Lexus, Ford, Mobileye, Jaguar and more. These companies are planning their transitions to EVs to compete with Tesla.
Musk called Green Hills software “a pile of trash”, citing the open source software Linux was better.
Green Hills software is a pile of trash. Linux ftw.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 16, 2022
Tesla’s recent Q4 Vehicle Safety Report disclosed there was 1 crash for every 4.31 million miles driven by Tesla owners using Autopilot. Compared to the latest NHTSA data, there is 1 automobile crash every 484,000 miles in the U.S.
