As the future approaches we anticipate technology to make out lives a whole lot easier, and that includes programs that take tasks away from us like Tesla's full self-driving feature. However, it appears that it just isn't ready to be used in the streets yet.
Super Bowl Ad
The advertisement was aired by The Dawn Project supported by Dan O'Dowd during the Super Bowl on Sunday. It shows a Tesla Model 3 using the full self-driving program running over a dressed-up child mannequin, as well as disregarding traffic signals, and hitting a stroller.
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
The tech billionaire from California spend around $7 million in order for the 30-second video to be seen by 100 million people watching the Super Bowl. O'Dowd was convinced that the feature was not ready and conducted an experiment himself, as mentioned in Interesting Engineering.
He even used his own Tesla for the experiment and urged the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to do the test themselves, just to confirm O'Dowd's finding in an official report, as he said in a tweet.
Teslas already offer the full self-driving mode feature, which assists with steering on highways, city streets, automatic parking, and even calling for the vehicle to come to the driver. It also claims that the beta identifies stop signs and traffic lights, which will slow and stop the car.
The FSD capability is a combination of Tesla's Autopilot and Enhanced Autopilot features, wherein the vehicle has traffic-aware cruise control and watches the speed of the cars in the surroundings, and assists in steering within a marked lane.
Tesla Safety Defects Showed in the Ad
Tesla added active safety features on all Tesla vehicles back in September 2014, which are made possible by the company's Autopilot hardware and software system. However, the ad shows a couple of them that did not function as intended.
For one, the Automatic Emergency Braking detects cars or obstacles in the way that the car may hit, which will lead to a Tesla halting to a stop accordingly. The ad shows that the car did not stop even in the presence of the mannequin or the stroller.
There's also the Side Collision Warning feature wherein the system warns the driver if there are obstacles along the car. In the ad, you'll see that the child mannequin was simulated in a way that makes it appear like it's crossing the road. Tesla did not detect it.
Granted, the Traffic and Stop Sign Control is still in its beta phase, but it can still be seen that it did not detect a stop sign in the 30-second ad shared by O'Dowd. The car just drives by the stop sign put out on the side of the school bus.
Dan O'Dowd reported six months ago that the full self-driving mode would run down a child, and pointed out that Tesla hasn't fixed it in his tweet. He continued to say that the NHSTA should turn off FSD until Tesla fixes all the safety defects.
