A billionaire road safety expert has slammed Tesla’s self-driving technology, claiming that it is unsafe and not used as widely as previously believed.
In February earlier this year, a furious mob attacked and set fire to a Waymo self-driving car in a seemingly random attack in San Francisco, California.
Speaking to GB News, Dan O’Dowd, founder and CEO of The Dawn Project, said the attack was likely to be hooliganism rather than any specific anti-autonomous vehicle sentiment.
However, the billionaire added that Tesla customers who had purchased their electric vehicle with Full Self-Driving appear to have lost trust and confidence in the software.
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Despite being an owner of eight Tesla EVs, O'Dowd has criticised the brand's self-driving technology
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He claimed: “Tesla's own mileage statistics show that customers are choosing to turn off Full Self-Driving 85 per cent of the time, despite Elon Musk's claims that the software is four times safer than a human driving manually.
“Why would safety conscious customers who paid up to $15,000 for Full Self-Driving switch it off 85 per cent of the time?
“The reason is that Full Self-Driving does not make you a safer driver, and Tesla drivers have realised the litany of safety defects present in Tesla's self-driving technology.”
During the latest Q4 earnings call from Tesla, founder Elon Musk said that 400,000 customers were using Full Self-Driving technology across the United States.
Dan O'Dowd with one of the three long-forgotten Tesla Roadsters he purchased from China
THE DAWN PROJECT
Between March and December 2023, the cumulative miles driven by FSD increased by 625 million miles – approximately 833 million miles per year. Full Self-Driving was covering approximately 2,082 miles per customer in this period.
The Dawn Project highlighted how data from the Federal Highway Administration in the United States shows the average American drivers 14,263 miles per year.
The software organisation claims that FSD is only engaged in approximately 14.6 per cent of the mileage covered by customers who purchased the software for up to $15,000 (£11,805).
O’Dowd added: “Waymo continues to pull ahead of Tesla in the race to autonomy.
“Waymo robotaxis are rolling out in the second largest US city while after almost a decade of Elon Musk’s promises of Full Self-Driving in a year or so, Tesla owners must still desperately cling to their steering wheels to keep Full Self-Driving from killing them.”
Self-driving vehicle technology has been under the microscope in recent months, despite massive investment into the sector and global support from governments and politicians.
In October last year, California's Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) stripped General Motors of its autonomous vehicle deployment and driverless testing permit for its Cruise fleet of driverless cars.
It came after one of its self-driving vehicles was braking but did not avoid striking a pedestrian previously struck by a hit-and-run driver, according to Reuters.
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Dan O'Dowd recently purchased three long-forgotten Tesla Roadsters from China
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The company announced that it would be pausing operations for the driverless vehicles in San Francisco, adding that it aims to develop technology that will save lives.
GB News has approached Tesla for a comment in response to the claims made by The Dawn Project.