After pummeling seven child-sized dummies, the shock factor was fading. When Tesla’s Full Self-Driving vehicle ran over the final and eighth body, it was just another one to top off the plastic-limbed pile.
Tesla’s robotaxi, fueled by its FSD software, is slated to launch in Austin on June 22. The Dawn Project, a California-based public safety group, organized a demonstration in Mueller last Thursday in opposition to the upcoming release, testing Tesla’s so-called Full Self-Driving cars as they fail to stop for school buses and pedestrians. After running full-page ads in The New York Times and a commercial during the Super Bowl, the group has since turned to in-person events.
“We’re concerned that this software is being recklessly deployed and sent to consumers before all the safety considerations are ironed out,” Maverick Freedlander, a volunteer for the Dawn Project, told the Chronicle. “Tesla is labeling this software as full self-driving, when their competitors don’t market it as such.”
In partnership with Tesla Takedown and local organization ResistAustin, Dawn Project coordinator Arthur Maltin borrowed a Model Y through Tesla’s 48-hour test drive window to conduct trials on Thursday morning. The group also rented a school bus from a private company for the day.
Sitting in the driver’s seat without touching the brakes or the wheel, Maltin entered a route into the vehicle that would circle the neighboring streets adjacent to Mueller Lake Park, eventually ending the drive at the location it started – by a school bus with its stop sign pulled out.
The Tesla robotaxi failed to slow or halt as it approached the school bus pulled over to its left, and immediately after running through the stop sign, crashed into the child mannequin. Each time the Model Y crashed into a dummy, it briefly paused on the road for a few seconds before ultimately continuing its route and running the dummy over again.
“We are calling on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to act now and ban Tesla’s Full Self-Driving from public roads to protect children,” Dan O’Dowd, founder of the Dawn Project, said. “NHTSA must do its job before a child is killed by this defective and dangerous technology.”
Maltin pointed out that other car companies use a technology similar to Tesla’s FSD, such as Ford and GM’s advanced cruise control systems, but do not market the car as fully autonomous.
“NHTSA must do its job before a child is killed.” – Dan O’Dowd, founder of the Dawn Project
“We believe that authoritarians are supported by enablers – Elon Musk being one of those enablers,” Nevin Kamath, a member of ResistAustin’s leadership team, told the Chronicle. “We are here because Elon Musk and Tesla are not only bad for our country, but they’re bad for Austin.”
The FSD software is available on all Tesla models released after 2014, requiring a supervisor to be present in the car and ready to take control of the wheel if necessary. The technology has been linked to multiple accidents in recent years, including a fatal crash in 2023.
Rather than competing in the same rideshare market as Waymo, which employs lidar (laser distance monitors, to put it very simply) and radar sensors, the Dawn Project believes Tesla is falsely advertising a software that lacks the proper standards to be determined as “self-driving.” Elon Musk is famously opposed to lidar, previously stating that it is a “fool’s errand” and a “crutch.”
“We’re here to protect the safety of our democracy while also protecting the safety of our community,” Kamath said.
This article appears in June 20 • 2025.