Disturbing Test Shows What Happens When Tesla Robotaxi Sees a Child Mannequin Pop Out From Behind a School Bus
After promising self-driving robotaxis for more than a decade, it's probably no surprise that Tesla CEO Elon Musk has blown way past his promised rollout date of June 12.
Now scheduled to formally roll out on the streets in Austin, Texas on either June 22 or 28 — not even Musk seems to know at this point — the tech billionaire's self-driving charade is running seriously behind. As consumer interest in Tesla continues to plummet, one generational hater is showing just how far Musk's last ditch effort to save Tesla is really lagging.
In a live demonstration on public roads in Austin, a recent media stunt showed that "self-driving" Tesla robotaxis make no qualms about running down children in cold blood.
The demonstration, sponsored by the Dawn Project — a watchdog group founded by Musk's fellow billionaire and longtime Pentagon contractor Dan O'Dowd — showed what happens when a Tesla running on current-gen self-driving software comes up on a stopped school bus. Making no attempt to slow down, the Tesla model Y barrels past the bus and its blinking stop light. When a child mannequin darts across the road, the EV plows right through it, taking a full car's length to come to a complete stop.
"What it shows is a full self-driving Tesla will not stop at a bus, and if a kid steps out, it will mow them down," O'Dowd told Futurism. Despite a two-year campaign by the Dawn Project to highlight the school bus issue — which included a full-page in the New York Times and a Superbowl commercial — O'Dowd says lawmakers, not to mention Tesla itself, have done nothing to fix the issue.
Sadly, that inaction has already had real consequences. In North Carolina in 2023, for example, a student was struck while exiting a school bus by a self-driving Tesla, and had to be airlifted to a hospital with life-threatening injuries.
"What's happened since? Tesla has not fixed the bug," O'Dowd said. "And still the government hasn't forced a recall."
For O'Dowd and the Dawn Project, Tesla is unique among carmakers adding self-driving features to their vehicles. Asked about the Dawn Project's stance on Waymo — which has its own history of dangerous traffic maneuvers — O'Dowd says "Waymo gets the job done."
"They actually can do ten million rides and not kill anybody," he notes. "Tesla can't do any self-driving and it's killed a lot of people. So that's my question, how many people have they killed? How many people have they injured?"
(As a point of fact, Waymo has logged a total of 696 accidents since 2021, with one Waymo-involved fatality recorded so far. Teslas, for comparison, have notched well over 2,146 incidents, with 553 Tesla-involved fatalities.)
While the writing might be on the wall for Tesla, O'Dowd continues to pour resources into raising awareness about the dangers Musk's vehicles pose to civilians, partnering with movements like the nationwide Tesla Takedown initiative. Despite the obvious, O'Dowd says it's not over 'til it's over.
"I've never been willing to go out there and short Tesla," the billionaire told us. "It's too risky. The guy's too good at making up stories to convince people he can make a bunch of money."
More on Tesla: Terrifying Footage Shows Self-Driving Tesla Get Confused by the Sun, Mow Down Innocent Grandmother
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