Watch: YouTube Host Fired By Tesla Shows FSD Repeatedly Failing To Detect Kids, Dogs

Popular YouTube channel AI Addict released a video on Thursday, testing Tesla Inc‘s TSLA Full-Self Driving software‘s ability to avoid obstacles such as children and dogs on the road.

What Happened: In the video, Tesla vehicles equipped with FSD version 11.4.4 and FSD Beta 11.4.2 were tested. Unfortunately, cars running both versions ended up colliding with a dummy resembling a five-year-old child named ‘Little Timmy.’

The car with 11.4.4 slowed down but failed to stop, resulting in a collision. Similarly, the older FSD version braked but too late, hitting Little Timmy. The video host, former Tesla ADAS test operator John Bernal, highlighted that these collisions could have been fatal if it were a real child.

In a third test, a Tesla broke through a road closure sign and braked as it approached Timmy walking with a toy dog. However, it still collided, and the vehicle moved on after the collision.

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Why It Matters: The video was created in collaboration with the public safety advocacy group The Dawn Project, led by Dan O’Dowd of Green Hills Software. The project aims to ban Tesla’s FSD software, claiming that it malfunctions frequently in city streets, with an average of every 8 minutes. The Dawn project argues that Tesla’s FSD software is the most unreliable safety-critical computer system.

Last year, Tesla sent a cease and desist letter to The Dawn project regarding a blog post stating that the FSD would run down a child. Dowd showcased the “critical safety defects” of FSD in a Superbowl advertisement, to which CEO Elon Musk responded, emphasizing the need for supervision despite the car’s ability to drive itself.

Bernal, the video host, was fired by Tesla in March 2022 for reviewing the FSD software on his YouTube channel. Bernal’s previous video showed a Tesla vehicle colliding with bollards. He worked at Tesla for over 1.5 years and expressed concerns about the software’s ability to recognize and obey stopped school buses.

“When I worked for Tesla as a data labeler in the Full Self-Driving team, not once did we ever train the software to recognize or obey a stopped school bus. Given the significant threat to child pedestrians, Tesla should urgently address this safety defect,” Bernal said in a statement about the new test video.

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