Tesla Ads made their way into this year’s Super Bowl advertising extravaganza, but Elon Musk did not endorse the campaign, which showed child-sized dummies being run over by the vehicles.
Across California, Delaware, Michigan, and Washington D.C., viewers were subjected to campaigns from The Dawn Project calling for viewers to boycott Tesla. The campaign claims that research that is worrying results of research into the dangers of the automotive company’s self-driving features were ignored by Tesla.
The second in the series of campaigns highlights a clause buried deep in the Tesla user manual that declares the autonomous feature is only safe on freeways. The ad claims that the efforts were blocked by the company when it was proposed to Tesla that the feature only be available on freeways.
“Tesla dances away from liability in Autopilot crashes by pointing to a note buried deep in the owner’s manual that says Autopilot is only safe on freeways,” the voiceover in the ad said.
There have been several reported instances of Tesla’s self-driving features backfiring, including a 17-year-old North Carolina boy who was hit while exiting a school bus that had its stop sign out and flashing lights on. The Washington Post reports a total of 17 fatalities and 736 crashes attributed to Tesla’s Autopilot.
This is not the first time Tesla has come under fire from The Dawn Project, with the organisation airing similar ads during last year’s Super Bowl. The ad featured numerous clips of Tesla’s autonomous driving feature failing to stop for child-sized test dummies crossing the street, ignoring road signs, and swerving into the wrong lane.
The Dawn Project was founded by Dan O’Dowd, who is said to be the world’s leading expert in creating software that never fails and that can’t be hacked. The organisation is dedicated to making computers safe for humanity and has targeted Tesla for several years.
According to the Washington Post, O’Dowd paid half a million dollars to air the “Boycott Tesla” Super Bowl ads in the targeted markets.
