Will Tesla sue Dan O'Dowd?

[AlanSubie4Life]

Seems to me that they have evaluated the Tesla system and staged events to make it subject to failure. Will use these videos to threated lawsuits and hope to get a huge settlement (self serving)

Remember when the same strategy was used to make emotional videos to show the side fuel tanks of some pickups were vulnerable to side impacts. When their testing was not dramatic enough they rigged explosives to go off to assure the video would show fames from ruptured tanks.

Smells like a shakedown

Yes, the only question is when D O’D will send out the first demand letter to Tesla, asking Tesla to cover the costs of the skilled cameraman (and the Very Professional Driver).

 

[daniel]

Seems to me that they have evaluated the Tesla system and staged events to make it subject to failure. Will use these videos to threated lawsuits and hope to get a huge settlement (self serving)

Searching for failure modes is what all good developers do. If this guy is finding ways to make FSD fail that Tesla was not already aware of, they should hire him. The more failure modes are found, the better the fixes will be, and the sooner they are found, the sooner they can be fixed.

Tesla makes no claim that "FSD" is a driverless system yet. They claim that it's good enough that the driver doesn't have to intervene very often. I say more power to anybody who can find more situations where driver intervention is needed, so that Tesla can address them and reach true driverless operation sooner. Hopefully while I am still alive.

If Tesla were to advertise, they should show the failure videos and say, "We are bringing Tesla FSD closer and closer to reality by creating and studying situations where it still falls short, and then developing systems that do not have these failure modes."

 

[sleepydoc]

Searching for failure modes is what all good developers do. If this guy is finding ways to make FSD fail that Tesla was not already aware of, they should hire him. The more failure modes are found, the better the fixes will be, and the sooner they are found, the sooner they can be fixed.

Tesla makes no claim that "FSD" is a driverless system yet. They claim that it's good enough that the driver doesn't have to intervene very often. I say more power to anybody who can find more situations where driver intervention is needed, so that Tesla can address them and reach true driverless operation sooner. Hopefully while I am still alive.

If Tesla were to advertise, they should show the failure videos and say, "We are bringing Tesla FSD closer and closer to reality by creating and studying situations where it still falls short, and then developing systems that do not have these failure modes."

There’s a difference between exposing bugs and extortion. A responsible hacker finds a bug, reports it to the developer and doesn’t publicize it. Others find the bug and sell it or otherwise weaponize it for personal gain.

Which type is DoD?

 

[daniel]

There’s a difference between exposing bugs and extortion. A responsible hacker finds a bug, reports it to the developer and doesn’t publicize it. Others find the bug and sell it or otherwise weaponize it for personal gain.

Which type is DoD?

I don't know. Is he demanding money from Tesla to withhold the videos? That would be extortion. If he's making dishonest videos and putting them on the internet, that would not be extortion. At worst it would be yellow journalism. But only if the videos are dishonest, as for example if he has defeated some feature of the system and concealed that fact. Or intentionally driven the car into something and claimed it was under FSD control when it was not.

If he's researched situations when FSD fails and then put the car into those situations, that's just investigative journalism. If that's the case, Tesla should work with him to improve the system, not fight him.

And if he's threatening to sue, that's just blowing hot air because Tesla, like any big company, has plenty of lawyers to deal with such threats. Including counter-suits for libel.

 

[sleepydoc]

I don't know. Is he demanding money from Tesla to withhold the videos? That would be extortion. If he's making dishonest videos and putting them on the internet, that would not be extortion. At worst it would be yellow journalism. But only if the videos are dishonest, as for example if he has defeated some feature of the system and concealed that fact. Or intentionally driven the car into something and claimed it was under FSD control when it was not.

If he's researched situations when FSD fails and then put the car into those situations, that's just investigative journalism. If that's the case, Tesla should work with him to improve the system, not fight him.

And if he's threatening to sue, that's just blowing hot air because Tesla, like any big company, has plenty of lawyers to deal with such threats. Including counter-suits for libel.

people were hypothesizing about a 'shake down' which would be extortion. I doubt he would do something as blatantly illegal as that, but he is using it to further his own personal agenda and organization, so the spirit is similar if not the same. There's also absolutely no evidence that he's doing any of this research to make Tesla's safer.

 

[enemji]

They do make marketing videos though.

I have not seen any of them on Netflix and Amazon Prime or HBOMax.

Searching for failure modes is what all good developers do. If this guy is finding ways to make FSD fail that Tesla was not already aware of, they should hire him. The more failure modes are found, the better the fixes will be, and the sooner they are found, the sooner they can be fixed.

Tesla makes no claim that "FSD" is a driverless system yet. They claim that it's good enough that the driver doesn't have to intervene very often. I say more power to anybody who can find more situations where driver intervention is needed, so that Tesla can address them and reach true driverless operation sooner. Hopefully while I am still alive.

If Tesla were to advertise, they should show the failure videos and say, "We are bringing Tesla FSD closer and closer to reality by creating and studying situations where it still falls short, and then developing systems that do not have these failure modes."

you are thinking like Dominos Pizza where they kicked their own pizza

 

[daniel]

people were hypothesizing about a 'shake down' which would be extortion. I doubt he would do something as blatantly illegal as that, but he is using it to further his own personal agenda and organization, so the spirit is similar if not the same. There's also absolutely no evidence that he's doing any of this research to make Tesla's safer.

If what you are saying is true, it's nothing worse than yellow journalism. And "people speculating" just means business as usual on the internet: people running their mouths. I'm not defending the guy. But it sounds like people are making a mountain out of a mole hill: One more anti-Tesla guy joining all the crackpots in the world today. It won't affect Tesla. They're still going to sell every car they can make until eventually EVs are the norm, not the exception.

you are thinking like Dominos Pizza where they kicked their own pizza

Actually, I'm not, because I know nothing about Dominos Pizza except that they sell pizzas. I don't even know if they're any good because when I want pizza I make my own. And when I used to travel, if I wanted pizza I'd find an independent place: I avoid chains like the plague.

 

[Daniel in SD]

Two Super Bowl ads this year. Surely this will activate the hardcore legal team!

 

[Tam]

Surely this will activate the hardcore legal team!

The teenager who stepped off the bus didn't die, thanks to the Tesla Model Y Autopilot. He only got a broken neck and leg and was weaned off from the ventilator successfully. He's now doing relatively fine except for trouble walking and memory (Biden is a President despite memory issues).

 

[DoctorWTF]

At worst it would be yellow journalism. But only if the videos are dishonest, as for example if he has defeated some feature of the system and concealed that fact. Or intentionally driven the car into something and claimed it was under FSD control when it was not.

Actually, Dr. Know-It-All examined the first Super Bowl ad, and found that of all the interior shots, the steering wheel icon in the top of the screen appeared to be gray (indicating that FSD was off).

 

[sleepydoc]

Actually, Dr. Know-It-All examined the first Super Bowl ad, and found that of all the interior shots, the steering wheel icon in the top of the screen appeared to be gray (indicating that FSD was off).

I didn’t watch the entire video, but the first 10 minutes wasn’t impressive and was kind of on par with DoD’s video. After showing the video they start off by saying ‘DoD lied in the past therefore his video is fake until proven otherwise.’ Not the strongest od arguments.

There are plenty of faults in the video but at least give a credible argument against them instead of lowering yourself to his standards!

 

[SilverSp33d3r]

Actually, Dr. Know-It-All examined the first Super Bowl ad, and found that of all the interior shots, the steering wheel icon in the top of the screen appeared to be gray (indicating that FSD was off).

Doesn’t TACC disable the FSDb code? That would mean the visualizations would disappear and switch back to basic autopilot visualizations