Super Bowl Storm: Why Elon Musk Is Betting All Bad Press For Tesla Autopilot Is Good Press

Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk doesn’t think that a Super Bowl ad questioning the automaker’s vehicles’ self-driving ability is necessarily bad publicity.

What Happened: Musk responded to a post on Twitter Sunday in which he addressed the advertisement from “The Dawn Project.”

“Exactly. This will greatly increase public awareness that a Tesla can drive itself (supervised for now),” said Musk.

Exactly. This will greatly increase public awareness that a Tesla can drive itself (supervised for now).

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 12, 2023

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Why It Matters: The Dawn Project’s Superbowl advertisement demonstrates “critical safety defects,” according to Dan O’Dowd, the founder of the campaign.

O’Dowd called for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to turn off full-self driving “until Tesla fixes all safety defects.”

Watch The Dawn Project’s #SuperBowl ad demonstrate critical safety defects in @Tesla Full Self-Driving. 6 months ago we reported FSD would run down a child. Tesla hasn't even fixed that! To focus their attention, @NHTSAgov must turn off FSD until Tesla fixes all safety defects. pic.twitter.com/AxJbN5oOSr

— Dan O'Dowd (@RealDanODowd) February 11, 2023

Notably, O’Dowd’s tweet came with Twitter's Community Notes that read that he owned a competing company that writes self-driving software and that his previous attempts to show FSD will “run down a child” were debunked.

Meanwhile, a Tesla Model Y vehicle was featured in a Popeyes advertisement during the Super Bowl. The ad shows Popeyes meme kid Dieunerst Collin arriving at a house in the vehicle.

Price Action: On Friday, Tesla shares closed 5% lower at $196.89 in the regular session, according to Benzinga Pro data.

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