The Dawn Project and Tesla Takedown to Demonstrate the Danger Tesla Full Self-Driving Poses to Children in Live Austin Safety Tests

AUSTIN, Texas, June 12, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Public safety advocacy group The Dawn Project is collaborating with Tesla Takedown to demonstrate the critical safety defects of Tesla's Full Self-Driving software in a live demonstration in Downtown Austin today.
The Dawn Project, in partnership with Tesla Takedown and ResistAustin, will demonstrate that the latest version of Tesla Full Self-Driving, version 13.2.9, will run down a child crossing the road while illegally blowing past a stopped school bus with its red lights flashing and stop sign extended.
The event will begin at 11am CDT on Thursday 12 June at the intersection of Camacho and Mattie Streets by Mueller Park in Austin and the media and public are encouraged to attend.
The organizations are choosing to conduct the demonstration on 12 June as it is the day which Bloomberg reported would mark the beginning of Tesla's Robotaxi service in Austin. Tesla has failed to meet this reported deadline and this week Elon Musk 'tentatively' set a new public launch date of 22 June. Tesla is also headquartered in Austin.
Both The Dawn Project and Tesla Takedown are calling for a boycott of Tesla. For the past two years The Dawn Project has urged the public not to buy new Tesla vehicles and to sell their Tesla shares until the automaker fixes the safety critical defects in 'Full Self-Driving' and Tesla conclusively demonstrates that it is safe for use on public roads. Tesla Takedown has organized nationwide protests against Elon Musk and Tesla in recent months.
The Dawn Project first warned Tesla that Full Self-Driving would illegally overtake stopped school buses in November 2022, via a full-page ad campaign in The New York Times. Tesla took no action to address the issue. The Dawn Project subsequently broadcasted a Super Bowl Commercial in February 2023 showing video footage of Tesla Full Self-Driving blowing past stopped school buses. Tesla still did nothing. Elon Musk's reaction was to crow on Twitter that the shocking footage would 'greatly increase public awareness that a Tesla can drive itself'.
In March 2023, just one month after The Dawn Project's Super Bowl PSA, a self-driving Tesla illegally blew past a stopped school bus in North Carolina and struck a child, who was hospitalized with a fractured neck and broken leg.
Commenting on the collaboration with Tesla Takedown, Founder of The Dawn Project Dan O'Dowd said: 'Self-driving software that illegally blows past stopped school buses and runs down children crossing the road must be banned immediately. Tesla's failure to address this critical safety defect demonstrates Elon Musk's utter negligence and contempt for public safety. If Tesla's engineers cannot fix this egregiously dangerous safety defect, they should be fired. If they can fix it but are choosing not to, they should be prosecuted.
'The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration must step up and ban Full Self-Driving from public roads to protect children. It is disappointing that the federal regulator in charge of road safety has taken no action to hold Tesla accountable. NHTSA must do its job and ban Tesla's defective Full Self-Driving technology from public roads before a child is killed.'
A spokesperson for Tesla Takedown commented: 'The government is failing to protect children from Tesla Full Self-Driving by allowing Tesla to test defective software on public roads. It is time for the public to step up to keep children safe from Tesla Full Self-Driving. The only way to stop Elon Musk's reckless self-driving experiments is to boycott Tesla.'
ResistAustin organizer, Nevin Kamath, commented: "Austinites are not Elon's personal crash-test dummies. ResistAustin is appalled that Musk chose our town as the launching pad for this dangerous technology and we encourage the people of Austin to boycott this dangerous service."
CONTACT: Contact: Arthur Maltin, arthur@dawnproject.com / dawnproject@maltinpr.com / (+1) 805-335-7807

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Yahoo

2 hours ago

• Yahoo

TSLA: Tesla Robotaxi Push Could Be a $1 Trillion Game-Changer

June 20 - Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) is set to launch its robotaxi operations in Austin this Sunday, with about 20 Model Y vehicles operating in a designated area, Wedbush mentioned in a Friday note. The firm called the move a key milestone that could define Tesla's next phase, estimating the autonomous unit alone could eventually add $1 trillion to the electric carmaker's valuation. Wedbush maintained its Outperform rating and $500 price target, citing Tesla's global reach and progress in artificial intelligence and driverless technology. The firm expects Tesla to scale the service to roughly 25 U.S. cities within a year and sees potential policy support ahead. Analysts said a Trump presidency could accelerate regulatory clearance for full self-driving systems. Tesla plans to begin production of its dedicated robotaxi model, the Cybercab, sometime next year, the note added. Wedbush believes Tesla's roadmap on autonomy and robotics will unfold gradually, saying, Rome wasn't built in a day. In a bull case, the firm sees Tesla reaching a $2 trillion market cap by the end of 2026. This article first appeared on GuruFocus.

Yahoo

3 hours ago

• Yahoo

Does BYD or Tesla stock offer the best value?

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and BYD (OTC:BYDD.F) are the two titans of the global electric vehicle (EV) market, but their investment cases diverge sharply when you dig into the numbers and outlook. Here's how they stack up for investors looking ahead. Tesla's forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratios remain stratospheric by any standard. The company is expected to trade at 168.8 times earnings in 2025, falling to 111.4 times in 2026 and 85.7 times in 2027. Even by its own five-year history, these multiples are elevated, and they are more than 10 times the consumer discretionary sector median. BYD, by contrast, looks far more modest. Its forward P/E is 18.4 times for 2025 and 14.2 times for 2026. That's just a fraction of Tesla's and much closer to sector norms. This huge valuation gap reflects the market's belief in Tesla's future growth, but also means any disappointment could hit the shares hard. Tesla's price-to-sales ratio for 2025 is a lofty 10.4 times, while BYD's is just 0.65 times. In other words, investors are paying a huge premium for each dollar of Tesla's sales, while BYD trades closer to traditional automaker multiples. BYD's lower multiple reflects its mass-market positioning and focus on affordability, while Tesla's premium signals expectations for high-margin growth and disruptive new business lines. Tesla boasts a market cap over $1trn, with $37bn in cash and $13bn in debt. This gives it a strong net cash position and plenty of firepower for R&D and expansion. BYD, with a market cap around $147bn, holds $21bn in cash and $5.7bn in debt. Still solid, but on a smaller scale. Tesla's financial muscle gives it flexibility, but BYD's balance sheet is also robust and supports its rapid global expansion. The real battleground is not just EVs, but autonomous driving and robotics. Tesla's valuation is highly detached from automotive peers because investors are betting it will dominate self-driving technology and unlock new business models like robotaxis and AI-powered logistics. Its Dojo supercomputer and Full Self-Driving (FSD) efforts are central to this thesis, though regulatory hurdles remain. BYD is not standing still. Its latest models integrate advanced driver-assist systems, LiDAR, and rapid-charging battery tech. This has already made headlines. However, its approach is more incremental, focusing on affordability, scale, and steady technological improvements. Coupled with the fact that it's Chinese, it hasn't been afforded the same attention by investors. BYD trades at far lower valuation multiples and has recently overtaken Tesla in global EV sales, especially in China and Europe. Meanwhile, Tesla commands a huge premium based on its potential to lead in autonomy and AI-driven transport. However, the execution risk is huge. For value-focused investors, BYD is the obvious choice, but clearly the market favours Tesla and Elon Musk's ambitions. The post Does BYD or Tesla stock offer the best value? appeared first on The Motley Fool UK. More reading 5 Stocks For Trying To Build Wealth After 50 One Top Growth Stock from the Motley Fool James Fox has no position in any of the shares mentioned. The Motley Fool UK has recommended Tesla. Views expressed on the companies mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the official recommendations we make in our subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. Here at The Motley Fool we believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. Motley Fool UK 2025

3 hours ago

As Musk's 'robotaxi' rollout approaches, Democratic lawmakers in Texas try to throw up a roadblock

NEW YORK -- A group of Democratic lawmakers in Texas is asking Elon Musk to delay the planned rollout of driverless 'robotaxis' in the state this weekend to assure that the vehicles are safe. In a letter, seven state legislators asked Tesla to wait until September when a new law takes effect that will require several checks before autonomous vehicles can be deployed without a human in the driver's seat. Tesla is slated to begin testing a dozen of what it calls robotaxis for paying customers on Sunday in a limited area of Austin, Texas. 'We are formally requesting that Tesla delay autonomous robotaxi operations until the new law takes effect on September 1, 2025,' the letter from Wednesday, June 18, reads. 'We believe this is in the best interest of both public safety and building public trust in Tesla's operations.' It's not clear if the letter will have much impact. Republicans have been a dominant majority in the Texas Legislature for more than 20 years. State lawmakers and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott have generally embraced Musk and the jobs and investment he has brought to Texas, from his SpaceX rocket program on the coast, to his Tesla factory in Austin. The company, which is headquartered in Austin, did not responded immediately to a request for comment from The Associated Press. The law will require companies to secure approval from the state motor vehicles department to operate autonomous cars with passengers. That approval, in turn, would depend on sufficient proof that the cars won't pose a high risk to others if the self-driving system breaks down, among other reassurances. Companies would also have to file detailed plans for how first responders should handle the cars if there is a problem, such as an accident. The letter asked Tesla to assure the legislators it has met all the requirements of the law even if it decides to go ahead with the test run this weekend. The letter was earlier reported by Reuters. Musk has made the robotaxi program a priority at Tesla and a failure would likely be highly damaging to the company's stock, which has already tumbled 20% this year. Musk's political views and his affiliation with the Trump administration have drastically reduced sales of Tesla, particularly in Europe, where Musk's endorsement of Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany party in February's election drew broad condemnation. Tesla shares bottomed out in March and have rebounded somewhat in recent months. Much of the rise reflects optimism that robotaxis will not only be deployed without a hitch, but that the service will quickly expand to other cities and eventually dominate the self-driving cab business. Rival Waymo is already picking up passengers in Austin and several other cities, and recently boasted of surpassing 10 million paid rides. In afternoon trading Friday, Tesla shares were largely unchanged at $320.