YouTube Takedown Footage of Tesla Investors Employing Children for FSD Beta Testing-2022
The purpose of the experiments was to assess whether or not a slow-moving Tesla outfitted with the company’s most advanced driver assistance technologies would automatically avoid collisions with pedestrians. The test driver, Tad Park, explained that the automobile never exceeded eight miles per hour and that he was prepared to take over at any point.
According to a YouTube representative, the videos have been removed in accordance with the company’s policy regarding harmful and dangerous content. YouTube has taken down two videos that showed Tesla drivers using their own children as dummies for safety tests on the road or in their driveways.
The goal of the tests was to see if a slow-moving Tesla with the company’s most advanced driver assistance systems would automatically avoid hitting people walking or standing still in the road. In this case, the people were children.
Elena Hernandez, a YouTube spokesperson: “YouTube does not permit content that depicts minors engaging in harmful activities or encourages them to do so.” Upon investigation, we found that the films brought to our attention by CNBC violated our harmful and dangerous content policy; as a result, the content was removed.
The exact policy referenced by YouTube relates to harmful and dangerous content. When it becomes aware of them, the business removes videos that promote dangerous or illegal actions that pose a risk of significant physical harm or death.
The spokesman said, “Specifically, we don’t accept anything that shows or tells kids to do dangerous things that could hurt them, like dangerous stunts, dares, or pranks.” In the United States, Tesla sells its driver assistance technologies as a base package named Autopilot and a premium option called Full Self-Driving (or FSD) for $12,000 upfront or $199 per month.
If a driver does well on the company’s safety tests in the car, they can also try out an experimental programme called Full Self-Driving Beta. Without a driver behind the wheel who is alert to the road and able to steer, brake, and accelerate on demand, none of these features make Tesla vehicles self-driving or safe to operate.
In Tesla’s owner’s manuals, drivers are warned that the features do not make their cars drive themselves. Driver: “I was ready to assume control at any point.” In a video recorded on August 14, Tad Park, a Tesla owner and investor in the Elon Musk-led company, drove a Model 3 at eight miles per hour towards one of his children on a road in the San Francisco Bay Area. Nobody was injured during the test.
The video garnered tens of thousands of views on YouTube before it was removed by a Google subsidiary. Alphabet also owns Waymo, the company that makes technology for self-driving cars and runs robotics.
Park is the chief executive officer of Volt Equity and the portfolio manager of VCAR, an ETF focused on autonomous driving technology. “I have personal familiarity with the goods and am confident in my investments,” Park told CNBC. We took great safety measures to ensure that children were never at risk.
In a follow-up email, Park explained, “First, we tried with a mannequin, then with a tall basketball player, and lastly, one child stood while the other crossed the street.” He stated that the automobile never exceeded eight miles per hour and elaborated, “We made sure the car identified the child.”
Even if the entire system failed, I was prepared to assume control at any time. I knew when I would need to apply the brakes if the vehicle did not slow down adequately. According to Park, the tests were a success because the automobile slowed and did not collide with any object, a pedestrian, or his children.
When asked if he would do it again, he responded, “I do not believe additional tests are essential, but if I did, I would repeat this test.” “However, I would not advise anybody to try this at home on purpose,” he warned.
Park did the tests partly as a response to an ad campaign by Dan O’Dowd, the founder of a software company, that ran across the country and criticized Tesla’s driver aids.
The now-removed movie was uploaded to a YouTube channel called Whole Mars Catalog, which is managed by Omar Qazi, a stakeholder and significant Tesla social media supporter.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, communicates often with the blog and Qazi on Twitter. On August 16, NHTSA issued the following statement: “NHTSA cautions the public against attempting to test vehicle technologies on their own.”
No one should put their own or anybody else’s life in danger to evaluate the performance of automotive technology. “As NHTSA has said many times, no car that can be bought right now is able to drive itself,” the agency said.
“The most up-to-date car technologies that you can buy right now help the driver, but a human driver is still needed to do the job of driving and keep an eye on what’s going on around them.”
According to the California DMV, “As advanced car technologies become more widely available, the DMV shares the same concerns as other traffic safety stakeholders regarding the possibility of driver confusion or misuse of these systems.”
DMV has previously emphasized to Tesla the importance of clearly and effectively communicating to customers, buyers, and the general public the capabilities, limitations, and intended use of any vehicle technology.
The California DMV has recently asserted that Tesla engages in misleading marketing or false advertising in regards to its driver assistance technologies. It is also doing a comprehensive safety examination of Tesla’s technology, including FSD Beta.
