√Tesla critic spends $US6 million on Super Bowl advertisement

A new campaign criticising Tesla’s flawed semi-autonomous driving technology was launched during the Super Bowl, alleging the car company’s ‘Full Self-Driving’ software is dangerous.

Tesla’s flawed semi-autonomous driving technology has been condemned in a new campaign – a privately-funded, big budget advertisement which aired run during the Super Bowl event in the US.

Broadcast to an estimated 100 million people in the US, the television commercial was paid for by The Dawn Project – an initiative by technology entrepreneur Dan O’Dowd, who calls himself an advocate of “safety-critical software”.

“Tesla ‘Full Self-Driving’ will run down a child in a school crosswalk, swerve into oncoming traffic, hit a baby in a stroller, go straight past stopped school buses, ignore ‘do not enter’ signs, and even drive on the wrong side of the road,” a voiceover in the advertisement claims.

The voice is accompanied by vision showing various failings of Tesla’s ‘Full Self-Driving’ software – the name of the semi-autonomous driving aid offered to owners of its electric cars.

It’s estimated the 30-second commercial spot cost The Dawn Project at least $US6 million ($AU8.68 million) to play during the Super Bowl – the finale of the US National Football League season, and traditionally one of the biggest events of the year for advertisers.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk was shown attending the Super Bowl, sitting alongside Australian-born media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

Mr O’Dowd used Twitter to show the commercial – a social media platform also owned by Mr Musk – though the post was accompanied by a number of unsolicited statements attached by Twitter.

“Dan O’Dowd owns a competing company writing self driving software,” one statement said, with a link to Mr O’Dowd’s company, Green hills Software.

It also claimed “Dan’s previous attempt to show FSD will “run down a child” was debunked,” and “Another user performed a test and it worked as expected,” both of which included links to articles by electric-car publications.

It’s not the first time The Dawn Project has targeted Tesla and its tech. In mid 2022, advertisements showed Tesla vehicles failing to recognise – and subsequently hit – child-sized mannequins.

In response, Tesla advocates conducted their own tests using real children – though that footage posted to YouTube has since been taken down by the social media platform.

According to respected US newspaper The Washington Post, the Super Bowl ad is the first in a new media campaign designed to target and pressure road safety law-makers.

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