Connect with us

Published

on

The Dawn Project, a group that runs ads attacking Tesla’s full self-driving system, has received a letter from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) demanding that it cease using its logo in advertising, which Dawn Project did in contravention of US federal law in its Super Bowl ad aired this weekend.

The Dawn Project is run by Dan O’Dowd, CEO of a software company which sells automotive driving software services, putting it in competition with Tesla. The Dawn Project itself is founded and funded by O’Dowd via his significant personal wealth (his net wealth isn’t public, but is estimated to be around a billion dollars), with the main goal of attacking Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system (FSD), claiming it to be unsafe.

The group has placed several advertisements online making dubious claims about FSD, posing as a public interest group solely interested in “making computers safe for humanity.” Its campaign has drawn a cease-and-desist letter from Tesla.

Dan O’Dowd also ran for California’s US Senate seat in 2022, with a campaign that largely focused on this one issue.

Both this year and last, the group ran an advertisement in the Super Bowl. This year’s ad cost $552,000 according to the Dawn Project, much less than the well-publicized ~$7 million price for a typical Super Bowl ad slot, because it ran as a regional ad and was not seen in all markets where the game aired.

The group posted two ads on its YouTube channel, one claiming that Tesla did not respond after it warned Tesla of FSD’s inability to stop for school buses, which it claims led to an accident that put a child into the hospital in 2023, after its first Super Bowl ad aired.

That incident is still being investigated, and it is not known yet whether the vehicle was operating on FSD. It has however been widely observed that FSD does not stop for school buses, so it is plausible that the incident could have happened if both the car and its driver did not notice the school bus stop sign.

However, in contradiction to the name Tesla has given to the system, FSD is not actually equipped to be used for full self-driving tasks, but rather as a driver aid which requires the driver to be attentive at all times. Despite the misleading name, FSD is still classed as a “level 2” autonomous system, like the systems on many other cars today, where the driver still has responsibility for everything the vehicle does.

Dawn Project violated federal law in its ad

The second ad is where NTSB’s letter comes in. In it, Dawn Project claims that Tesla shirks liability for autopilot claims with a note in the owner’s manual saying that it should only be activated on highways.

In doing so, it used footage from various Tesla crashes, with the logo of the NTSB overlaid in the corner of the ad. See a screenshot, provided by the NTSB in its letter:

In NTSB’s letter, it says that this use of its seal violates federal law:

RE: Unauthorized Use of NTSB’s Official Seal in Super Bowl Commercial

Dear Sir/Ma’am:

It has come to our attention that your second Super Bowl LVIII commercial
airing on February 11, 2024, prominently – and unlawfully – displays the official seal of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). In addition to its public airing, the commercial has been posted to your webpage, dawnproject.com, and to your YouTube page. A screenshot of the commercial in question is attached.

By federal law, the NTSB is authorized a judicially recognized seal. 49 U.S.C. § 1111(j). Use of the NTSB Seal outside of the NTSB is prohibited without the prior written approval of the NTSB. 49 C.F.R. § 803.5. Due to the nature of our work and the need to be unambiguously independent from commercial interests, we strive to protect the international reputation of the NTSB by preventing unapproved use of our
seal.

Contrary to Federal law, you did not obtain, and the NTSB did not grant,
permission to use the NTSB Seal in your Super Bowl LVIII commercial or on any other materials. Moreover, your unauthorized use of the NTSB’s seal spuriously implies endorsement of your company and/or message by the NTSB. Accordingly, the NTSB demands that you cease any further unsanctioned use of the NTSB Seal, and that the NTSB’s Seal be immediately removed from your website and YouTube page, as well as any further airings of the offending commercial. We further request that you notify us in writing when all changes have been made.

The Dawn Project seems to have quickly complied with the letter, as its youtube video now has a large, conspicuous blur visible for roughly half of its runtime, obviously covering up the illicit use of NTSB’s logo:

However, despite the quick followup by the Dawn Project, the ad still aired with the logo in the first place, and in front of a lot of eyeballs in what was apparently the most-viewed American television event since the moon landing.

Electrek’s Take

There are no heroes here.

It seems that Dan O’Dowd has repeatedly stretched the truth in his attacks on FSD, and that both his business and potential political aspirations are benefitted by the publicity he gets from those attacks.

That latter point doesn’t mean he’s wrong all on its own, as it’s totally fine for people to align their personal interests with what they believe to be the greater interests of humanity. But being so laser-focused on attacking one particular system, and doing so in inaccurate ways, doesn’t really help O’Dowd’s case that this is being done in the public interest.

The tone of the Dawn Project’s advocacy does not serve to improve FSD or similar partial-automation system, but rather to fearmonger about them, and we don’t think that’s helpful.

But also, Tesla, and in particular its CEO Elon Musk, has repeatedly lied or misled about FSD.

The name itself is misleading, as Tesla cars do not drive themselves, as pointed out above. Tesla calls it “beta” software, and has repeatedly said that these are just steps on the way to actual eventual full self-driving, but we’ve been hearing Elon Musk say that FSD is coming “next year” for a full decade now (and he’s still saying it).

The way that Tesla talks about FSD, and the name itself, has led to a sense of overconfidence in the system, which could lead to people using it in an unintended manner. This was pointed out by the widow of a Tesla employee who died while driving drunk with FSD activated, who says “we were sold a false sense of security.”

And Tesla has broken direct promises with FSD as well. It said in 2016 that every Tesla has the hardware for FSD, but it’s still charging owners for hardware upgrades to enable it. It’s possible that this could happen again in the future, if Tesla finds out that true self-driving tasks are too much for HW3 or HW4.

So there is fault from all parties involved. Tesla’s approach with FSD is pushing the concept of self-driving forward, but the company takes liberties in doing so. However, criticism of the company isn’t served well by taking its own liberties and stretching the truth in response.

There are plenty of valid points to criticize Tesla and FSD on, and if O’Dowd were truly doing this for the public interest, he wouldn’t need to falsify government logos, stage fake tests, or misrepresent real-life events along the way.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Continue Reading

Environment

I found this cheap Chinese e-cargo trike that hauls more than your car!

Published

on

By

I found this cheap Chinese e-cargo trike that hauls more than your car!

If you’ve ever wondered what happens when you combine a fruit cart, a cargo bike, and a Piaggio Ape all in one vehicle, now you’ve got your answer. I submit, for your approval, this week’s feature for the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week column – and it’s a beautiful doozie.

Feast your eyes on this salad slinging, coleslaw cruising, tuber taxiing produce chariot!

I think this electric vegetable trike might finally scratch the itch long felt by many of my readers. It seems every time I cover an electric trike, even the really cool ones, I always get commenters poo-poo-ing it for having two wheels in the rear instead of two wheels in the front. Well, here you go, folks!

Designed with two front wheels for maximum stability, this trike keeps your cucumbers in check through every corner. Because trust me, you don’t want to hit a pothole and suddenly be juggling peaches like you’re in Cirque du Soleil: Farmers Market Edition.

Advertisement – scroll for more content

To avoid the extra cost of designing a linked steering system for a pair of front wheels, the engineers who brought this salad shuttle to life simply side-stepped that complexity altogether by steering the entire fixed front end. I’ve got articulating electric tractors that steer like this, and so if it works for a several-ton work machine, it should work for a couple hundred pounds of cargo bike.

Featuring a giant cargo bed up front with four cascading fruit baskets set up for roadside sales, this cargo bike is something of a blank slate. Sure, you could monetize grandma’s vegetable garden, or you could fill it with your own ideas and concoctions. Our exceedingly talented graphics wizard sees it as the perfect coffee and pastry e-bike for my new startup, The Handlebarista, and I’m not one to argue. Basically, the sky is the limit with a blank slate bike like this!

Sure, the quality doesn’t quite match something like a fancy Tern cargo bike. The rim brakes aren’t exactly confidence-inspiring, but at least there are three of them. And if they should all give out, or just not quite slow you down enough to avoid that quickly approaching brick wall, then at least you’ve got a couple hundred pounds of tomatoes as a tasty crumple zone.

The electrical system does seem a bit underpowered. With a 36V battery and a 250W motor, I don’t know if one-third of a horsepower is enough to haul a full load to the local farmer’s market. But I guess if the weight is a bit much for the little motor, you could always do some snacking along the way. On the other hand, all the pictures seem to show a non-electric version. So if this cart is presumably mobile on pedal power alone, then that extra motor assist, however small, is going to feel like a very welcome guest.

The $950 price is presumably for the electric version, since that’s what’s in the title of the listing, though I wouldn’t get too excited just yet. I’ve bought a LOT of stuff on Alibaba, including many electric vehicles, and the too-good-to-be-true price is always exactly that. In my experience, you can multiply the Alibaba price by 3-4x to get the actual landed price for things like these. Even so, $3,000-$4,000 wouldn’t be a terrible price, considering a lot of electric trikes stateside already cost that much and don’t even come with a quad-set of vegetable baskets on board!

I should also put my normal caveat in here about not actually buying one of these. Please, please don’t try to buy one of these awesome cargo e-trikes. This is a silly, tongue-in-cheek weekend column where I scour the ever-entertaining underbelly of China’s massive e-commerce site Alibaba in search of fun, quirky, and just plain awesomely weird electric vehicles. While I’ve successfully bought several fun things on the platform, I’ve also gotten scammed more than once, so this is not for the timid or the tight-budgeted among us.

That isn’t to say that some of my more stubborn readers haven’t followed in my footsteps before, ignoring my advice and setting out on their own wild journey. But please don’t be the one who risks it all and gets nothing in return. Don’t say I didn’t warn you; this is the warning.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Continue Reading

Environment

OPEC+ members agree to larger-than-expected oil production hike in August

Published

on

By

OPEC+ members agree to larger-than-expected oil production hike in August

The OPEC logo is displayed on a mobile phone screen in front of a computer screen displaying OPEC icons in Ankara, Turkey, on June 25, 2024.

Anadolu | Anadolu | Getty Images

Eight oil-producing nations of the OPEC+ alliance agreed on Saturday to increase their collective crude production by 548,000 barrels per day, as they continue to unwind a set of voluntary supply cuts.

This subset of the alliance — comprising heavyweight producers Russia and Saudi Arabia, alongside Algeria, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Oman and the United Arab Emirates — met digitally earlier in the day. They had been expected to increase their output by a smaller 411,000 barrels per day.

In a statement, the OPEC Secretariat attributed the countries’ decision to raise August daily output by 548,000 barrels to “a steady global economic outlook and current healthy market fundamentals, as reflected in the low oil inventories.”

The eight producers have been implementing two sets of voluntary production cuts outside of the broader OPEC+ coalition’s formal policy.

One, totaling 1.66 million barrels per day, stays in effect until the end of next year.

Under the second strategy, the countries reduced their production by an additional 2.2 million barrels per day until the end of the first quarter.

They initially set out to boost their production by 137,000 barrels per day every month until September 2026, but only sustained that pace in April. The group then tripled the hike to 411,000 barrels per day in each of May, June, and July — and is further accelerating the pace of their increases in August.

Oil prices were briefly boosted in recent weeks by the seasonal summer spike in demand and the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, which threatened both Tehran’s supplies and raised concerns over potential disruptions of supplies transported through the key Strait of Hormuz.

At the end of the Friday session, oil futures settled at $68.30 per barrel for the September-expiration Ice Brent contract and at $66.50 per barrel for front month-August Nymex U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude.

Continue Reading

Environment

Podcast: Trump/GOP go after EV/solar, Tesla, Ford, GM EV sales, Electrek Formula Sun, and more

Published

on

By

Podcast: Trump/GOP go after EV/solar, Tesla, Ford, GM EV sales, Electrek Formula Sun, and more

In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss Trump’s Big Beautiful bill becoming law and going after EVs and solar, Tesla, Ford, and GM EV sales, Electrek Formula Sun, and more

Today’s episode is brought to you by Bosch Mobility Aftermarket—A global leader and trusted provider of automotive aftermarket parts. To celebrate Amazon Prime Day July 8th through 11th, Bosch Mobility is offering exclusive savings on must-have auto parts and tools. Learn more here.

The show is live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel.

As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in.

Advertisement – scroll for more content

After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps:

We now have a Patreon if you want to help us avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming.

Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast:

Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 4:00 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET:

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Continue Reading

Trending