Tesla's Full Self-Driving software is a 'deadly threat' to child pedestrians

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Tesla's Full Self-Driving software is a 'deadly threat' to child pedestrians

A safe-technology advocacy group issued claims Tuesday that Tesla's full self-driving software is a potentially deadly threat to child pedestrians, the latest in a series of claims and investigations into the technology to hit the world's leading electric carmaker.

According to a safety test conducted by the Dawn Project, the latest version of the Tesla Full Self-Driving FSD Beta software repeatedly hit a stationary, child-sized mannequin in its path. In several tests, a professional test driver found that the software released in June failed to detect the child-sized figure at an average speed of 25 mph and the car hit the mannequin. The results were deeply disturbing, according to the Dawn Project founder, Dan O Dowd. O Dowd added that Tesla's Full Self-Driving software is amazing, and that's why the company chief Elon Musk says. It is a deadly threat to all Americans.

Over 100,000 Tesla drivers are already using the car's Full Self-Driving mode on public roads, putting children at great risk in communities across the country. O Dowd argued that the results show the need to prohibit self-driving cars until Tesla proves that the vehicles won't mow down children in crosswalks. Tesla has repeatedly hit back at claims that its self-driving technology is too underdeveloped to guarantee the safety of the car occupants or other road users.

After a fiery crash in Texas in 2021 that killed two, Musk said that the autopilot feature, a less sophisticated version of FSD, was not turned on at the moment of collision.

At the shareholder meeting earlier this month, Musk said that Full Self-Driving has greatly improved, and he expects to make the software available to all owners that request it by the end of the year. There are still questions about its safety.

In June, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration NHTSA said it was expanding an investigation into 830,000 Tesla cars across all four current model lines. The expansion came after analysis of a number of accidents revealed patterns in the car's performance and driver behavior.

The NHTSA said the investigation would aim to examine the degree to which Tesla's autopilot technology and associated systems may be exacerbated human factors or behavioral safety risks by removing the forward-looking radar sensor on some newer Teslas. A second NHTSA investigation is also under way to determine if the removal of the forward-looking radar sensor on some newer Teslas is the cause of phantom braking and can lead to wrecks.

The agency has investigated 30 accidents involving Teslas equipped with automated driving systems since 2016, 19 of which were fatal. NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation is looking at the company's autopilot technology in at least 11 crashes where Teslas hit emergency vehicles.

Many of the wrecks aren't investigated by the NHTSA. More Teslas were involved in more than 400 crashes involving cars with driver-assist systems reported by automakers between July 2021 and this past May.