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

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.

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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