Dan O’Dowd, CEO of Green Hills Software and the founder of The Dawn Project, today shared a Super Bowl ad demonstrating alleged “critical safety defects” in Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Beta and said that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) “must turn off FSD until Tesla fixes all safety defects.”
O’Dowd’s advertisement claims that FSD will “run down a child in a school crosswalk, swerve into oncoming traffic, hit a baby in a stroller,” and more. It goes on to allege that Tesla’s FSD beta is “endangering the public.”
Watch the 30-second ad for yourself below:
Watch The Dawn Project’s #SuperBowl ad demonstrate critical safety defects in @Tesla Full Self-Driving. 6 months ago we reported FSD would run down a child. Tesla hasn't even fixed that! To focus their attention, @NHTSAgov must turn off FSD until Tesla fixes all safety defects. pic.twitter.com/AxJbN5oOSr
— Dan O'Dowd (@RealDanODowd) February 11, 2023
Last year, O’Dowd took out a full-sized ad targeting Tesla and FSD in the Sunday, January 16th, paper edition of The New York Times.
The ad featured allegations that were quickly debunked, and O’Dowd later admitted to having a “financial interest” in opposing Tesla’s tech. “Sure, we’re a [Tesla] competitor in a moderate way,” he said In an interview on the CNBC‘s Squawk on the Street.
While The Dawn Project claims to be “making computers safe for humanity,” O’Dowd’s other company, Green Hills Software, is a supplier to several Tesla competitors such as Toyota, Lexus, Ford, Jaguar, and more.
Green Hills creates software tools used by its clients to develop autonomous driving systems and more. Tesla CEO Elon Musk previously called Green Hills’ software “a pile of trash.”
Also last year, O’Dowd ran for Senate in California on a single-issue platform of banning FSD in the U.S. and said he would use his Senate bid to bludgeon Tesla and Musk. He was later served with a cease-and-desist order from Tesla over videos that featured “unsafe and improper use” of FSD beta.
