It turns out that Tesla’s FSD Bet actually does stop for kids and pedestrians as demonstrated in a video with both a mannequin and an actual child. Recently, the founder of the Dawn Project who is also the CEO of Green Hills Software, which makes automated driving systems, Dan O’Dowd, claimed that Tesla’s FSD Beta did not stop for a child-sized mannequin. This led to a mainstream media storm against Tesla and its life-saving technology.
Tesla owner and FSD Beta Tester, @WholeMarsBlog asked if there were anyone in the Bay Area with a child who could run in front of his car while FSD Beta was engaged. Many took this as a joke, however, The Verge published an open letter to @WholeMarsBlog asking him not to do this.
It turned out that there was someone in the Bay Area willing to allow his child to put Tesla’s FSD Beta to the ultimate test. And it should be noted that the person who allowed this was the driver during the test.
In a Twitter DM, @WholeMarsBlog told me:
“Our tests showed that Tesla Full Self-Driving Beta has no problem detecting pedestrians of all ages. As long as the driver is paying attention, which the system ensures, there is no risk to pedestrians even in the event that the software fails to detect them.”
“This is driver assistance and is not expected to be perfect. It sickens me that Dan O’Dowd would push harmful misinformation to benefit himself financially. He should be charged criminally for false advertising, along with any stations that ran his ads. I don’t have millions to spend on ads like Dan, so please share the video on social media so that everyone who saw Dan’s ad can see our test too.”
Tesla FSD Beta doesn’t hit the mannequin or the child.
In a series of tests involving a child-sized mannequin dressed up and later on a child, Tesla’s FSD Beta proves to not do as O’Dowd claimed it would do.
During the first test, the mannequin was standing in the middle of the street and the car wouldn’t move once FSD Beta was turned on. After moving the mannequin further down the road, the group engaged FSD Beta and it slowly began to move forward.
Once it got closer to the mannequin, it slowed down and came to a complete stop. @WholeMarsBlog showed a detailed look at the screen which showed that Tesla’s FSD Beta detected a pedestrian in the street. It should be noted that, unlike O’Dowd’s video, there were no cones on either side of the vehicle blocking the car from moving around the mannequin.
In the next test, they moved the mannequin a little to the right. The vehicle not only recognized that there was a pedestrian in the street but easily moved around it safely.
Testing Tesla’s FSD Beta with People
In the next series of tests, one of the members of the group, Alvey, participated. Alvey stood in the middle of the street and FSD Beta immediately recognized Alvey as a pedestrian and came to a complete stop at a safe distance. Next up, Alvey walks in front of the car as it’s driving and the car immediately stopped.
In the next test, Tad Park, the CEO of Volt Equity took the driver’s seat. Tad said that he trusted the system enough and has tried FSD Beta previously.
“I would trust my kids’ lives with it and so I’m very confident that it’s going to detect my kids. And then, I’m also in control of the vehicle so I can brake at any time.”
Not only does Tesla’s FSD Beta detect Tad’s son, but it stopped for him. In the next test, Tad’s son crossed the street in front of the moving vehicle. Again, FSD Beta recognized what was happening and reacted accordingly. It slowed down and @WholeMarsBlog pointed out that it waited for him to cross and then continued on.
Attempting to run the mannequin over at a higher speed
The next test was for them to run the mannequin over at a higher speed. They moved it far enough that it was almost out of view but Tesla Vision still detected it. They accelerated to 40 miles per hour but instead of hitting the mannequin, FSD Beta slowed down and moved over to the right.
“It’s not like the commercials you see on TV.”
The video disproves the claim that Tesla FSD Beta will hit kids and do so repeatedly. You can watch it below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu4ZEnIwYZI
Disclaimer: Johnna is long Tesla.
I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or see a typo, you can email me at johnna@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @JohnnaCrider1
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Tesla Robotaxi app update now tells riders if Cybercab is the better choice
Tesla’s Robotaxi app now shows ETAs, wait times and availability for Cybercab and Model Y.
Tesla has rolled out a new vehicle selection screen in its Robotaxi app, and it puts the numbers riders care about most in front of them before they book.
Version 26.11.0 of the app shows the estimated arrival time, the expected wait and current availability for each vehicle option on a single screen, according to a video shared by @gheeunit on X on November 7. Riders deciding between a Cybercab and a Model Y Robotaxi can now compare those figures side by side instead of picking a car first and learning how long it will take afterward.
Tesla first gave riders that choice on September 3, the day paid Cybercab rides began in Austin. The original version of the screen listed the Cybercab, which seats two, next to the Model Y, which seats four. A later build, 26.8.2, added a seating capacity indicator so groups knew which car would fit them. What it did not show was whether choosing the Cybercab meant standing on the curb a few extra minutes.
Newest version of @robotaxi app has a new vehicle selector UI for choosing between Cybercab and Model Y and shows you the fare for both simultaneously! https://t.co/7qoDQ0vACX — mantequilla 🧈 (@gheeunit) November 7, 2026
That question matters more now than it did two months ago. Tesla had 45 Cybercabs on the Texas DMV roster when rides started. By late October the state listed 573, alongside 631 Model Ys, and community trackers logged a record 1,576 Cybercab sightings across Austin on Halloween alone. With two large fleets sharing one service area, the closest car and the quickest pickup are not always the same vehicle.
Inline availability also changes what happens when demand spikes. If no Cybercab is free nearby, the rider sees that on the selection screen rather than after trying to book one.
For now the comparison is mostly an Austin feature. Riders in Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth and the Florida markets are still matched with Model Y vehicles, though Tesla said on its third quarter earnings call that Cybercab rides would launch in Dallas this month.
The update follows a steady run of smaller changes to the rider experience. Late last month Tesla brought a quiet mode that blacks out the cabin screen to Model Y Robotaxis after first testing it in the Cybercab, and it has stretched Austin service to run from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m.
The Cybercab side of that selection screen is about to get much busier. Elon Musk said this week that Tesla will wind down Cybertruck production at Gigafactory Texas around the middle of 2027 to make room for more Cybercab output, and Tesla has said it is aiming to get Cybercabs to customers by the end of this year.
Tesla has not published official release notes for version 26.11.0.
Tesla is ending Cybertruck production sometime in mid-2027, according to CEO Elon Musk.
Musk made the announcement on X last night, which came as a shock to many. He said that the Cybertruck will end production “to make room for increased Cybercab production” at Gigafactory Texas.
It is a huge blow to the fans of Tesla who have come to love the Cybertruck and identify with it as a symbol of their fandom. It has been the best-selling electric pickup, but it has had an underwhelming sales performance in terms of what was expected. This is mostly due to Tesla not meeting the prices it planned to offer the Cybertruck, as its unveiling and actual release were four years apart.
Tesla will be winding down production of the Cybertruck at Gigafactory Texas around the middle of next year to make room for increased Cybercab production
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2026
Overall, the responses were mixed. Some fans understood the move toward Cybercab production, especially as Tesla is truly pushing the autonomous future through its Robotaxi platform. However, others did not understand it.
“Damn, how many Cybercabs do you guys need?” one response read. Another said it was “Sad but understandable.”Even analyst Gary Black had responded to the news, stating he hoped Tesla planned to replace it with a traditional pickup design.
It doesn’t seem like that will be the case.
Tesla is so hell-bent on delivering autonomy and eventually providing a driverless service that owning a car seems like an arbitrary idea, according to their thesis. Instead, Cybercabs will be available to pick you up and drop you off on demand, safely, without any human help.
As a result, Tesla has thinned its lineup considerably, and one can only ask where the vehicle lineup goes from here. Eventually, it seems like Cybercab could be the only vehicle that Tesla will sell.
Elon Musk
SpaceX’s next Starship flight set to make history on Friday the 13th
SpaceX is targeting Friday, November 13 for Starship Flight 15 and its first ship catch.
SpaceX is targeting Friday, November 13 for Starship Flight 15, the mission the company plans to use for its first attempt at catching the ship itself with the launch tower.
SpaceX Vice President of Launch Kiko Dontchev shared the date on stage at the UP.Summit on Thursday, according to Ars Technica’s Eric Berger, who was in attendance. It is the first launch target to come directly from a SpaceX executive. Until now, the public schedule had relied on FAA air traffic planning slides, which listed Flight 15 for no earlier than November 8 and later November 12. SpaceX has not posted an official mission page yet, and no launch time has been shared.
The date lands inside the window Elon Musk sketched out last month. Speaking at Giga Texas on October 10, Musk said the flight would “probably launch a little bit before Thanksgiving,” as Teslarati reported. On SpaceX’s third quarter earnings call ten days later, he confirmed that Flight 15 would try to catch both the Super Heavy booster and the ship, and put the odds of a successful ship catch at “more likely than not.” SpaceX also aired an animation of the maneuver during that webcast, showing the ship swinging vertical over Starbase before dropping into the tower’s chopsticks.
The hardware is ready. Booster 22 fired all 33 of its Raptor engines for a full duration static fire at Pad 2 on October 25. Ship 42 followed with a single engine burn simulating a deorbit maneuver on October 26 and a 60 second firing of all six engines the next day, according to NASASpaceflight. Ship 42 had already rehearsed the catch in September, when the Pad 2 arms lifted it into position and crews connected the quick disconnect arm while the vehicle hung from the tower.
The remaining hurdle is regulatory. The FAA’s Starship page does not yet list a Flight 15 license. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said in October that, after “significant constructive engagement with the FAA,” she expects the license to cover a return to the launch site and a tower catch for both stages. Bringing the ship home means a reentry path that heads toward land, rather than ending over open ocean as every Starship flight so far has.
SpaceX has caught Super Heavy three times, on Flights 5, 7 and 8, but the ship comes back from orbital velocity and has never been caught. Flight 14 on September 28 was the first Starship to reach orbit, deploying 26 Starlink V3 satellites before splashing down despite an early engine shutdown that Musk blamed on engine computer software.
Musk has called a successful ship catch “the first time that there’s been full recovery of an orbital class rocket,” and he has already named the step after it: a Flight 16 where both the booster and the ship fly again. NASASpaceflight reports that Ship 43, the next vehicle in line, is set for static fire testing in December.
Tesla Robotaxi app update now tells riders if Cybercab is the better choice
Tesla is ending Cybertruck production
