zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Tech
/
Tesla Wants Videos of Its EVs Running Childlike Dummies Over Taken Down Due to Inaccuracies
Tesla Wants Videos of Its EVs Running Childlike Dummies Over Taken Down Due to Inaccuracies-February 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:10:25

Image for article titled Tesla Wants Videos of Its EVs Running Childlike Dummies Over Taken Down Due to Inaccuracies

has broken its uncharacteristic silence around the whole “” debacle. Tesla is now demanding that certain videos showing its EVs using its “” and still running over be taken down. Not because the videos are at best inane and at worst dangerous, but because they “misrepresent the capabilities of Tesla’s technology.”

Tesla sent a Cease and Desist letter dated August 11 to safety advocacy group threatening further legal action if the group doesn’t stop showing the videos, according to . The Tesla letter says that Dawn Project and its founder Dan O’Dowd are “disparaging Tesla’s commercial interests and disseminating defamatory information to the public.”

Dawn Project originally aired the video in question as part of a TV campaign warning against the shortcomings of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving and Autopilot features. The videos show an FSD-enabled Tesla EV failing to stop when a child mannequin crosses its path, and the Tesla proceeds to run over the kid dummy.

Tesla argues the tests in the video are “likely fraudulent,” and it wasn’t long before Tesla’s and Elon Musk’s fans came to the defense of Autopilot and FSD. The Dawn Project videos inspired users to record and post their own tests.

Image for article titled Tesla Wants Videos of Its EVs Running Childlike Dummies Over Taken Down Due to Inaccuracies

And the back-and-forth between those remarking that Tesla’s ADAS features are, indeed, and those saying the features work as advertised by Tesla came to a head when Tesla supporters suggested tests should be run on actual children and adults.

It was bad enough that had to warn people to refrain from risking human lives, especially those of children, to test the performance of a fucking vehicle feature. My words, not NHTSA’s — although if you read between the lines, I bet you’ll find something similar.

As mentions, Project Dawn is run by a critic of Tesla and a software entrepreneur seeking public office in California. Meaning O’Dowd has an axe to grind, and is not a completely disinterested party. But O’Dowd is hardly the first to of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving and Autopilot features.

Tesla insists on referring to these in ways that are misleading, and the EV company continues to face legal challenges — both in the U.S. and abroad — to its advertising of Level-2 ADAS systems in ways that, uh, well “misrepresent the capabilities of Tesla’s technology,” to borrow a phrase from Tesla itself.

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Tech
Working at Tesla Means Being in an 'Abusive Relationship' With Elon Musk: Report
Working at Tesla Means Being in an 'Abusive Relationship' With Elon Musk: Report
What separates , at least according to the marketing copy, from every other car company is this: It’s not driven by a desire for profit, but by a mission to save the planet from climate change by electrifying our cars. But what’s it like to live that mission every day...
Feb 15, 2026
This 1911 Film Predicted the Dangers of Autonomous Vehicles, Like Dragging Cops and Dogs and Getting Stranded Inside of Saturn
This 1911 Film Predicted the Dangers of Autonomous Vehicles, Like Dragging Cops and Dogs and Getting Stranded Inside of Saturn
I know we tend to think that robotically-driven cars are a very recent phenomenon, but the truth is that people have been imagining the consequences of AVs since the turn of the last century. In fact, there’s at least one film that addresses the issues head-on, ’s 1911 film, ....
Feb 15, 2026
Waymo Launches the First Commercial Self-Driving Taxi Service—With Caveats
Waymo Launches the First Commercial Self-Driving Taxi Service—With Caveats
, Google’s self-driving car project, hit another milestone on Wednesday by launching an Uber-like service in Arizona that’s driven by a fleet of autonomous taxis. But there’s some caveats to the service. The service, dubbed Waymo One, will ferry a group of riders that have participated in the company’s autonomous...
Feb 15, 2026
Tesla Employee Claims It's Still Preventing Union Organizing
Tesla Employee Claims It's Still Preventing Union Organizing
has kept up practices to prevent workers from organizing a union, even as it battles with a U.S. labor agency over allegations that its management violated federal labor laws, a new complaint alleges. In a complaint filed Dec. 5 with the National Labor Relations Board, the worker—whose name has been...
Feb 15, 2026
Watching the 2019 Honda Pilot's Torque Management System in Real Time Is Fascinating
Watching the 2019 Honda Pilot's Torque Management System in Real Time Is Fascinating
As brands seem, more and more, to only care about “” and “,” it’s nice when more driver-oriented features show up in even the most utilitarian of people haulers. Enter the , which can animate its torque-management system in real time in front of the driver. ( I asked Honda...
Feb 15, 2026
BMW and Porsche's Three-Minute Ultrafast Charger Is Here to Cure Your Range Anxiety
BMW and Porsche's Three-Minute Ultrafast Charger Is Here to Cure Your Range Anxiety
BMW and Porsche unveiled a prototype ultrafast electric car charger capable of charging specially designed research cars to 100 kilometers, or about 62 miles, worth of charge in just three minutes and to 80 percent of battery life within 15 minutes. And just like that, the era of electric range...
Feb 15, 2026
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved