Tesla Full Self-Driving Super Bowl ad aims criticism at driver assistance suite

Credit: Dan O'Dowd | Twitter

Tesla Full Self-Driving is going to be criticized by Dan O’Dowd’s Dawn Project in an advertisement that will air during the Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles.

O’Dowd has been arguably the biggest critic of Tesla’s FSD suite, running several controversial campaigns against the company and its semi-autonomous driving suite.

Over the past year or so, the Dawn Project has not only run full-page advertisements against the suite in the New York Times but has also attempted to run Twitter advertisements that put the suite in a negative light.

Now, the Dawn Project is taking it a step further by running an advertisement during the Super Bowl, which is not a cheap thing to do. The ad costs $598,000 to run, a spokesperson for the Dawn Project told CNN.

The ad will run in Washington, D.C., Austin, Texas, where Tesla’s Headquarters is located, Tallahassee, Florida, Albany, New York, Atlanta, Georgia, and Sacramento, California.

“Tesla’s Full Self-Driving is endangering the public with deceptive marketing and woefully inept engineering,” the ad will read.

O’Dowd posted the ad to Twitter, stating:

“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, @NHTSAgov must turn off FSD until Tesla fixes all safety defects.”

Tesla issued a cease and desist letter against the Dawn Project’s efforts to derail FSD after the company stated that the software would “mow down children.”

Tesla maintains that drivers must pay attention and keep their hands on the wheel when using its semi-autonomous driving functions.

I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at joey@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.

Joey Klender: Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his time at TESLARATI, Joey has broken several big stories, including the first images of the Tesla Model S Plaid, the imminent release of the 4680 Model Y through EPA certification, and several expansions to the Lucid AMP-1 factory in Arizona, to name a few. His stories have been featured in several publications, including Yahoo! Finance, Fox News, CNET, and Seeking Alpha. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on Twitter @KlenderJoey.
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