It seems like the tech founder Dan O’Dowd is not quite pleased about Tesla’s Full Self Driving technology. O’Dowd is the CEO of Green Hills Software and in his opinion, Tesla’s FSD technology is the “worst software ever sold by a Fortune 500 company.” O’Dowd’s wrath took up a full-page ad in the New York Times wherein he threw sharp criticisms at Tesla and its FSD technology. O’Dowd was not in the mood to mince his words, neither was Musk who responded through a tweet saying that “Green Hills Software is a pile of trash.” Well, the tone is not very surprising given Musk’s reputation of speaking without a filter. All in all, it seems like both the CEOs are in the mood to lock horns.
The What and Why
This is not the first time Tesla’s Full Self Driving technology is coming under scrutiny. However, this might be the first time such sharp criticisms were aimed at the company. Dan O’Dowd, the CEO of Green Hills Software called out Tesla for treating Full Self Driving users as “crash-test dummies.” The accusations did not go down well with the Tesla CEO who responded in the very same tone. Let us take a look at Musk’s tweet.
Green Hills software is a pile of trash. Linux ftw.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 16, 2022
O’Dowd said that the ad was placed in connection with the Dawn Project, a pressure group focussed on the campaign for the ban of FSD. Digging deeper it seems like O’Dowd had some ulterior motives behind the ad. More than a sharp polemic, the ad was a publicity stunt used to draw attention to his own company. Green Hills had said earlier this month that its technology was being used for the development of the driver-assist software for the all-electric BMW iX. The full-page ad piqued the attention of Twitter users who were a bit flustered at the ad which occupied one whole page. After all, balance is important.
Although FSDs are under scrutiny and has attracted criticism, it doesn’t make the cars fully autonomous. Rather the technology is an optional add-on. Tesla has emphasized the necessity for the drivers to pay attention while using the FSD beta owing to the fact that the cars aren’t fully autonomous. However, Dan O’Dowd seems to disagree and is not convinced about the safety element of the Tesla software.
“We did not sign up our families to be crash test dummies for thousands of Tesla cars being driven on the public roads by the worst software ever sold by a Fortune 500 company.”