(RoyalPatriot.com )- The Washington Post reported last week that Tesla is demanding an advocacy group take down videos showing its self-driving vehicles hitting child-sized mannequins, arguing that the footage is defamatory and misrepresents its advanced driver-assistance software.
In a cease-and-desist letter obtained by the Post, Tesla objected to a video from the anti-“Full Self-Driving” group, the Dawn Project, that shows electric vehicles allegedly in self-driving mode plowing into mannequins at speeds of over 20 mph. The video includes a call to ban Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Beta software.
Unsurprisingly, the group’s video prompted several news reports and renewed criticism of Tesla’s self-driving software which is currently being tested by over 100,000 drivers in multiple countries, including the United States and Canada.
Tesla’s defenders argued that the tests depicted in the video could have been manipulated and many even attempted to recreate the demonstrations themselves.
According to Dan O’Dowd of the Dawn Project, the group is targeting Tesla’s full self-driving system because he believes the technology behind it isn’t safe enough and needs to be banned or redesigned.
In the cease-and-desist letter, Tesla’s deputy general counsel Dinna Eskin argued that the tests conducted by Dawn Project “misuse and misrepresent the capabilities of Tesla’s technology. Eskin wrote that the group disregarded both the “widely recognized testing” done by independent agencies and the “experiences shared by our customers.”
The letter demands the Dawn Project remove the videos immediately and accuses the group of “unsafe and improper use” of the Full Self-Driving Beta, claiming that the Dawn Project’s actions “actually put consumers at risk.”
The letter cites an investigation done by the outlet Electrek which determined that Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” Beta was “never engaged” during the Dawn Project’s mannequin test.
However, some aspects of that investigation have been called into question after the Dawn Project provided the raw data and other information from the test showing that the Full Self-Driving” was activated.
Read the report from the Washington Post HERE.
