In some US cities, ad breaks were used during the Super Bowl to warn about Tesla: – Tesla is dancing away from responsibility, says promoter.
Tech entrepreneur Dan O'Dowd has spent a lot of time, effort and money in recent years telling the world that Tesla cars have no business on the road.
On Monday night, hundreds of millions of television viewers tuned in to watch the Kansas City Chiefs defeat the San Francisco 49ers in the prestigious Super Bowl final.
In between the fights, TV viewers can also watch two Tesla boycott commercials.
One ad shows what is supposed to be a self-driving Tesla car running over a doll of a young child crossing the road.
The second ad shows photos of what are supposedly accidents caused by Tesla's Autopilot function.
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Tesla did not comment
The sender is O'Dowd's organization “The Dawn Project”. An organization working for safer software.
This is the second year in a row that he has aired ads during the Super Bowl about Tesla.
Last year, the cost of advertising amounted to $598,000. He wrote that the cost of advertising this year amounted to $552,000 CNN.
This year, the commercials aired in Washington, D.C., Dover, Delaware, Traver City, Michigan, and Santa Barbara, California.
At today's average, O'Dowd spent over NOK 12 million on anti-Tesla ads during the Super Bowl.
Many media outlets have written about this issue. No one has been able to get a comment from Tesla.
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– Dancing away from responsibility
O'Dowd has previously tried to be elected to the U.S. Senate.
His entire election campaign revolved around Tesla and the software for its self-driving cars.
But O'Dowd isn't giving up.
– Tesla has repeatedly failed to address flaws in its flawed self-driving software. “When you buy a new Tesla, you are financing and enabling Elon Musk to put a dangerous, incomplete product on our public roads,” O'Dowd said in a press release on Sunday.
There is an entire chapter in the Tesla owner's manual that addresses the limitations of the self-driving function.
You are warned, among other things, that you may not use the functions when driving on hills, on roads with sharp bends, in direct sunlight, or when shadows cover the lines marking the road.
It also states that you should always be ready to take the lead.
In one of the commercials that aired during this year's Super Bowl, it was said that this was just a disclaimer.
The ad says: – Tesla evades liability in Autopilot accidents by pointing to a note buried deep in the user manual that says Autopilot is only safe on highways.
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I have remembered before
O'Dowd believes the only action that could influence Tesla is to boycott Tesla products and Tesla stock.
He's not the only one whose Tesla Autopilot has had trouble.
In December, Tesla recalled two million cars after the US equivalent of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) found problems with its self-driving software.
NHTSA described the recall as something that should be done when a vehicle is exposed to unnecessary safety risks or does not meet minimum safety standards.
The manufacturer is then required to correct the defect by repairing the vehicle, replacing it, offering a refund, or in rare cases buying back the vehicle.
Although these are not necessarily physical summonses, this is the term used for such cases in the United States.
An earlier version of the story said the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Philadelphia Eagles. this is not true. The team that was beaten is called the San Francisco 49ers. Corrected on 13 February at 00:11.
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