Dan O’Dowd doesn’t mince his words at Tesla.
| ticker | safety | Last | change | change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TSLA | TESLA INC. | 1,030.51 | -19.10 | -1.82% |
The founder and CEO of Green Hills Software claimed in a full-page ad that appeared in the New York Times that “millions would die every day” if the current version of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving System gave full control over everyone Vehicle on the Tesla would have road.
O’Dowd, whose company supplies operating systems to several automakers and the defense and aerospace industries, personally paid to advertise under The Dawn Project, which he founded, which calls for a ban on “insecure software from safety-critical systems”. ‘ which could allow hackers to remotely control connected devices, including autonomous cars, that are connected to the internet for lethal purposes.
O’Dowd based his criticism on a study of videos posted online showing Tesla owners using the Full Self-Driving feature, which Tesla says is in beta and capable of limited autonomous ability only under driver supervision is. According to his review, the videos show Full Self-Driving making a “critical driving error” every eight minutes and an “unforced error” every 36 minutes that “would likely cause a collision.”
O’Dowd called Full Self-Driving the “worst piece of commercial software I’ve ever seen” and thinks it’s really in an alpha stage that should be tested internally by Tesla employees, not Tesla owners .
“The software that powers the self-driving cars that millions of people will depend on has to be the best software,” he said.
While a limited version of Full Self-Driving is available to anyone with a Tesla, owners can also apply to be a beta tester of a more advanced version if they have a high enough safe driving rating, as determined by their car’s software.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk commented on the ad with a tweet that read, “Green Hills software is a bunch of junk. Linux ftw” and agreed, noting that Full Self-Driving critics “always have a strong financial interest in a competing solution.”
O’Dowd told FOX Business that the best sources of information about a product are its competitors.
“They tear them apart, they figure out what they’re doing right, they figure out what they’re doing wrong,” he said.
“They know better and they will tell you. The seller will never tell you these things.”
He also said that the original version of Tesla’s Autopilot, which was a precursor to Full Self-Driving, was built using Green Hills Software.
“I pulled out of the project and said, ‘I don’t know if this is right, that we should be doing this, that this isn’t going to work.'”
FOX Business could not independently confirm O’Dowd’s claim about Green Hill Software’s relationship with Tesla, and the automaker, which does not have a functioning media affairs office, has not responded to a request for comment.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is currently investigating whether Full Self-Driving was involved in an accident that occurred Nov. 3 in Brea, California, but Elon Musk told Tesla Bulle Ross Gerber’s comment on Twitter that “since the start of the FSD beta version there has not been a single accident or injury” was correct.
To bring home his point about the lack of security of full self-driving, O’Dowd is now offering a $10,000 reward to anyone who can find another commercial product sold by a Fortune 500 company and where a critical malfunction occurs every eight minutes.
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Elon Musk announced last week that the Full Self-Driving system’s price will soon increase from $10,000 to $12,000, and expect more price increases as it develops with new capabilities.
