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Elon Musk has responded to an ad shown during the Super Bowl on Sunday that showed a Tesla car crashing and “killing children”.
One of Tesla’s biggest critics staged an ad to highlight the dangers of self-driving cars, doing so while founder Elon Musk was in the audience at the game.
Millions of Americans and people around the world gather to watch the annual NFL Championship Game on Sunday. Along with watching sports, halftime shows and even commercials are all part of the entertainment.
This year, viewers were shown an ad for a self-driving Tesla 3 car ignoring the warning lights of a school bus and crashing into a child’s mannequin, colliding with a pram and speeding past no-entry signs.
Elizabeth Murdoch, Elon Musk and Rupert Murdoch sitting together at the 2023 Super Bowl
(fox)
It was organized by Dan O’Dowd, a California tech entrepreneur who is campaigning against Tesla self-driving cars. The 66-year-old believes cars are a danger to others on the roads.
Musk, who sat in the audience of the Super Bowl on Sunday, was seen talking to Fox empire owner Rupert Murdoch right after the half-time show featuring Rihanna.
Rihanna performed during the Super Bowl half-time show
(Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
Musk has previously said that it would be morally wrong to ban self-driving cars because they save lives.
Appearing at Nvidia’s developers conference in 2015, Musk said that humans driving cars are “very dangerous”.
He said: “You can’t have a person driving a two-ton death machine.”
The graphic ad from safety advocacy group The Dawn Project was shown in several parts of the US, including Washington DC.
Before the game, Mr O’Dowd tweeted: “Check out the Dawn Project #Super Bowl Ad exposes critical security flaw @Tesla.
“Full Self-Driving. 6 months ago we reported FSD [Full Self-Driving] Will run under a child.
“Not even Tesla got it right! To focus their attention, @NHTSAgov FSD must be shut down until Tesla fixes all safety flaws.
“Almost all of the deniers below have a colossal conflict of interest. They are $tsla Shareholders desperately trying to cover up security flaws @tesla Full self-driving just to line your pocket.
“We publish footage of every test, showing multiple angles in which the controls haven’t been touched, and fanboys still confidently claim we faked them!
“To remove all doubt that these serious security flaws are real, we invite @Elon Musk, @NHTSAgovMedia to watch a public performance.
According to statista.com, it is estimated that a 30-second ad during the Super Bowl costs approximately $7 million (£5.81 million).
Self-driving cars are not yet available for purchase.
The Independent has contacted Tesla for a comment.
Source: www.independent.co.uk
