Dawn Project Safety tests reveal that Tesla Full Self-Driving illegally overtakes stopped school buses and runs down children crossing the road

/EIN News/ -- SANTA BARBARA, Calif., Feb. 19, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Public safety advocacy group The Dawn Project has revealed the findings of its safety tests of Tesla Full Self-Driving version 13. The tests reveal that Full Self-Driving will illegally blow past stopped school buses with their stop signs extended and red lights flashing, and will run down a child crossing the road in front of the bus.

A Media Snippet accompanying this announcement is available by clicking on this link.

Video: The Dawn Project’s Safety Tests of Tesla Full Self-Driving

The Dawn Project’s latest tests follow years of campaigning by the organization to draw Tesla’s attention to this critical safety defect. Tesla was made aware of this in November 2022, but has apparently made no effort to fix this defect.

In November 2022, The Dawn Project published New York Times ads warning Tesla that its self-driving software would blow past a stopped School Bus and run down a child crossing the road.

Tesla took no action. In February 2023 the group ran a Super Bowl commercial warning Tesla of this danger.

Tesla still did nothing. In March 2023, North Carolina teenager Tillman Mitchell was run down by a self-driving Tesla whilst exiting a school bus. The school bus had its stop sign extended and red lights flashing, which the self-driving Tesla failed to recognize. Mitchell was hospitalized for months with a fractured neck and broken leg.

The Dawn Project’s latest safety tests also follow claims made by Tesla supporters that the issue has been solved in the latest update to Full Self-Driving, Version 13.

The Dawn Project’s safety tests categorically disprove this false assertion. Tesla Full Self-Driving continues to illegally blow past stopped school buses with their stop signs extended and red lights flashing. Full Self-driving will still run down a child crossing the road in front of the bus.

Dan O’Dowd, Founder of The Dawn Project, commented: “Elon Musk has known about this critical safety defect for over two years. If Tesla’s woefully inept engineering team can’t fix this, FSD should be abandoned. If they can but are choosing not to, they should be prosecuted.”

“Tesla’s contempt for public safety is astonishing. What other Fortune 500 company would ship such a defective product to safety conscious consumers?”

“NHTSA should ban Full Self-Driving from public roads immediately, until Tesla can conclusively demonstrate that Full Self-Driving will not blow past stopped school buses and run down children.”

Notes to Editors: Dan O'Dowd is an entrepreneur and CEO with over 40 years’ experience in designing and writing secure, safety-critical software. O’Dowd develops secure operating systems for NASA spacecraft, US nuclear bombers and commercial airliners. The operating system O’Dowd developed for intercontinental nuclear bombers achieved the highest security rating ever issued by the NSA.

In 2021, O’Dowd founded The Dawn Project, which campaigns to make computers safe for humanity by ensuring that all software in safety-critical infrastructure never fails and can’t be hacked. The first danger The Dawn Project is tackling is Elon Musk’s reckless deployment of unsafe self-driving Teslas on our public roads. The Dawn Project is a not-for-profit safety advocacy group and is funded solely by O’Dowd’s personal wealth.

A video accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/5b8d3628-a987-45c3-8a36-ae743fcd1862

Contact: info@dawnproject.com