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Elon Musk responds to Super Bowl commercial showing Teslas crashing and ‘killing children

Elon Musk responds to Super Bowl commercial showing Teslas crashing and 'killing children'

Celebrities

Elon Musk responds to Super Bowl commercial showing Teslas crashing and ‘killing children

The long-awaited Super Bowl finally took place yesterday (February 12) and created quite a stir. There has been plenty of drama, ranging from former US President Donald Trump’s criticism of Rihanna’s half-time show performance to Drake making bets on the games risking up to $1 million.

The latest comes as Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO and product architect, responds to a Californian tech entrepreneur whose campaign tries to ban Tesla’s planned fully self-driving cars. Tesla’s official website calls the phenomenon: “Autopilot and Full Self-Driving Capability.” According to the manufacturer, this self-driving function, also known as an “advanced driver system,” would “enhance safety” as well as convenience.

“When used properly,” the website explains, “Autopilot reduces your overall workload as a driver.” Nonetheless, one person was extremely vocal about their dissatisfaction with the new function in the form of a long ad. Dan O’Dowd tweeted the ad.

The 30-second commercial shows a Tesla pulling up on a suburban street, with the words “full self-driving” scrolling across the screen. A mannequin child is being slowly pushed onto the road by a string as the Tesla drives along. Within seconds, the automobile clashes with the model child. The next scene shows a shaky driver crashing his car into two pushchairs on the road.

The car then passes many stop signs near a high school bus, highlighting the obvious flaws with self-driving technology. To conclude the sequence, the car is seen crashing into – you guessed it – another mannequin child. The short video ends with the text: “Why does NHTSA allow Tesla full self-driving?”

O’Dowd captioned the tweet: “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, NHTS must turn off FSD until Tesla fixes all safety defects.”

Tesla’s Twitter account shared the advert in a tweet, writing: “Thank you @RealDanODowd for spending $7M for this $tsla advertisement. It’s very clear that your testing was fake but grateful for spreading the word that Teslas are the leader for general autonomy.”

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