On Sunday, two Super Bowl ads took aim at Tesla’s self-driving technology, calling on viewers to boycott the company and claiming the company’s vehicles are unsafe.
The Dawn Project’s ad echoes the 2023 Super Bowl ad campaign in which an Autopilot-powered Tesla mowed down child-sized dummies in a parking lot.
“Here’s what Elon Musk doesn’t want you to know: He’s selling flawed self-driving software to consumers, telling them it’s many times safer than a human driver. But in reality, he drives like a drunk teenager.” The group’s website says:.
“Anyone who buys a Tesla from Elon Musk becomes a promoter of his reckless actions, including his self-driving experiments that have resulted in more than 1,000 accidents and at least 33 tragic deaths.” continuing. “Boycott Tesla and cut off funding for Elon Musk’s depraved human experiments.”
Sunday’s ad showed footage of an Autopilot-powered Tesla ignoring a school bus’s flashing stop sign and crashing into multiple child-sized dummies.
Tesla’s Autopilot technology has come under increasing scrutiny from state and federal regulators over the last year. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) concluded in December that incorrect use of software led to the crash.
In response to the NHTSA report, the company recalled nearly 2 million vehicles, nearly all of the vehicles it had ever produced, for the mandated Autopilot update. Tesla disagreed with the NHTSA’s findings, but accepted the vehicle recall and software update.
Autopilot is Tesla’s main feature, with software that automatically moves between lanes, accelerates, and brakes. Despite its name, this is not a fully self-driving system.
The software has been criticized for claims that it can be easily tricked into causing drivers to not be as attentive as intended, or even to be in the driver’s seat during the journey.
This recall is the latest investigation into Tesla, which has been the subject of multiple recalls and safety investigations by NHTSA in recent years, including a previous recall for its self-driving software.
In July, California’s attorney general launched its own investigation into Autopilot software and the safety of Tesla cars.
The Hill has reached out to Tesla for comment.
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
