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Tesla auto pilot attacked on TV commercials...

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Old Apr 19, 2022 | 11:52 PM
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Default Tesla auto pilot attacked on TV commercials...

This commercial has been running like crazy on my local station all evening. Shows two guys driving around, recording near misses and mistakes auto pilot makes. Then it's recommended the viewer call Congress to complain. I know there's been issues with the system, but I find the two guys and video somewhat suspect. It appears their hands are on the wheel at times, possibly confusing or over-taking the system. Also, their verbal reactions sound corny and fake. Lastly, can one person's auto pilot make that many mistakes in such short time period (they are loosely time-stamped)? No Tesla owner I have heard of has ever had so many near-misses with their car. The whole thing comes across as somewhat fabricated. I don't dispute auto pilot's flaws (and despise Tesla's ghost brake lights on the highway), but I don't think this video is doing anyone any favors. Curious on Tesla's response to this...



Last edited by Fizzboy7; Apr 20, 2022 at 12:01 AM.
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Old Apr 20, 2022 | 04:11 AM
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I didn’t watch the video but it’s likely not auto pilot but probably full self driving they are talking about. Auto pilot is like normal radar cruise control.
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Old Apr 20, 2022 | 04:54 AM
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I believe the person is running for Congress and is against auto pilot and wants to ban it.
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Old Apr 20, 2022 | 05:11 AM
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https://electrek.co/2022/04/19/tesla...ge-senate-run/

Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) package is being attacked as part of a new multi-million-dollar national ad campaign started by a billionaire who willingly admits his bizarre Senate run is all about attacking Elon Musk and Tesla’s self-driving system
....
The video consists of a compilation of clips from longer FSD Beta test drives from owners posted to Youtube. We previously reported on some of those clips. O’Dowd is going to pay $2 million for playtime on this ad in 36 states, and he says that he put aside $7 million for his campaign. He also hired a team consisting of Democratic ad maker Mark Putnam, veteran party operative John Blair, and Tim Maltin, a high-powered public affairs executive in London. The Santa Barbara man is already making the Democratic party nervous as they fear his campaign is going to negatively affect the state’s appointed junior senator, Alex Padilla. If O’Dowd is not particularly interested in becoming a Senator and his campaign is primarily about preventing Tesla FSD Beta to be used on public roads, it is fair to ask why he doesn’t just pay for an anti-Tesla FSD ad campaign. But it is believed that making it a political ad could help him avoid issues with a higher degree of first amendment protection, especially since his first ad is using clips from videos mostly made by Tesla fans. O’Dowd said that he is willing to step down if the legislature commits to banning Tesla from deploying its FSD beta on public roads. While the tech executive argues that his effort, which he is backing with a lot of money, is focused on trying to remove what he believes to be a dangerous technology from public roads, it would be fair to mention that his company, Green Hills Software, is competing with Tesla. It’s not something that the CEO often mentions when discussing Tesla in his “single-issue campaign,” but Green Hills Software has been developing a lot of automotive software, which it offers to OEMs.
...
Strange situation, but I guess people can do what they want with their money. From what I can tell those videos are pulled from YouTube dating back to the earliest releases of FSD, spliced together, and overlayed with audio to make them all seem consistent and more dramatic. I don't really care to be honest, FSD has been such a mess of missed deadlines it was only a matter of time till it became somebody's pet project to target it.

​​​​​​​

Last edited by sg021; Apr 20, 2022 at 07:40 AM.
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Old Apr 20, 2022 | 05:24 AM
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It should at least be regulated.
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Old Apr 20, 2022 | 05:59 AM
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Originally Posted by patgilm
I didn’t watch the video but it’s likely not auto pilot but probably full self driving they are talking about. Auto pilot is like normal radar cruise control.
It's definitely suspect for one car having so many problems *while they are filming* without this being a giant story plastered all over the internet.
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Old Apr 20, 2022 | 08:31 AM
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Originally Posted by Fizzboy7
This commercial has been running like crazy on my local station all evening. Shows two guys driving around, recording near misses and mistakes auto pilot makes. Then it's recommended the viewer call Congress to complain. I know there's been issues with the system, but I find the two guys and video somewhat suspect. It appears their hands are on the wheel at times, possibly confusing or over-taking the system. Also, their verbal reactions sound corny and fake. Lastly, can one person's auto pilot make that many mistakes in such short time period (they are loosely time-stamped)? No Tesla owner I have heard of has ever had so many near-misses with their car. The whole thing comes across as somewhat fabricated. I don't dispute auto pilot's flaws (and despise Tesla's ghost brake lights on the highway), but I don't think this video is doing anyone any favors. Curious on Tesla's response to this...
https://www.tesla.com/support/autopilot
Autopilot and Full Self-Driving Capability are intended for use with a fully attentive driver, who has their hands on the wheel and is prepared to take over at any moment.
IMO, the driver should not have to work so hard to overtake the system (as shown in some clips like the one with the UPS truck), nor should there be any risk of "confusing the system" by keeping your hands on the wheel as directed by Tesla. The driver should always be in a position to easily take over when they prefer to use their own judgement. Right now it seems like driving a Tesla with FSD enabled is like being a driver's ed instructor in the passenger seat of a car retrofitted with secondary controls used for driver training, while a novice driver takes their road test. You're still in control for the most part, but you're "supervising" someone or something that still has a lot to learn, and you have to fight their inputs if you have differences in judgement. I think that's more stressful than driving a car without FSD.

With regard to the video, I don't think all of the clips are of the same two drivers in one Tesla, though I can understand how someone could come to that conclusion based on the wording used and the lack of specifics. There is a text overlay at the 8-second mark that says that all of the clips came from a YouTube channel called AI Addict. The content creators of this channel do "stress tests" of Tesla FSD, and many of the clips are in fact the same one or two content creators. Some of the clips are from other drivers, likely those who submitted their clips to AI Addict, who then uploaded them to their channel or playlists (for example, the clip at the 25-second mark).

Aside from the last clip, most (all?) of the footage seems to come from a playlist on the AI Addicts YouTube channel, titled FSD Beta 10 Tests. The last clip is from 2020 (obviously only included to support their campaign). The FSD Beta 10 Test videos are full length drives with timestamps, you can watch one of their videos to see that they aren't fabricated.
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Old Apr 20, 2022 | 10:29 AM
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Originally Posted by jer
I believe the person is running for Congress and is against auto pilot and wants to ban it.
He owns a software development company that develops software for the automotive industry. Tesla's software advancements (benchmarked against other car manufacturers) in the automotive field is on a completely different level and he sees this as a major threat to his business.
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Old Apr 20, 2022 | 11:36 AM
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Dan O'Dowd is running for Senate in CA, but he is running this ad nationwide. I saw it a couple of times last night here in TN.
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Old Apr 20, 2022 | 11:43 AM
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LOL Look up who this guy running the ad is.
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Old Apr 22, 2022 | 06:42 AM
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Originally Posted by jer
I believe the person is running for Congress and is against auto pilot and wants to ban it.
yes, let's not get into politics here, but here's an article outlining his agenda...

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/0...-musk-00025688
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Old Apr 22, 2022 | 06:47 AM
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posts about twitter deleted - off topic.
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Old Apr 22, 2022 | 12:23 PM
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LOL, self driving cars real soon.

https://electrek.co/2022/04/22/tesla...oned-by-owner/
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Old Apr 22, 2022 | 06:45 PM
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I watched the video. I agree it's probably overdone, but I still wouldn't bet my life on any automotive "self-driving" system...at least not yet.
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Old Apr 24, 2022 | 10:55 AM
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Without getting off-topic into the non-automotive aspects of this, Musk has done two things I don't approve of:

1) He's refused to change the name of the feature from "Full Self Driving," even though he admits it's not capable of safely doing what that name says.

2) He's told untruths about footage that showed the feature failing to perform safely.

Speaking as a consumer, this does not build my confidence in either the feature or his company.
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