‘Tesla’s life-threatening FSD must be stopped immediately’

Tesla’s FSD gives drivers the option to let their car drive a route completely independently. FSD is not officially on the market yet, but in North America there are already more than 100,000 Tesla drivers who can try its beta variant. With this, Tesla collects data to perfect FSD and prepare it for a market introduction. FSD beta testers should always be prepared to intervene, so they can’t just sit back and relax while the car is moving. In practice, however, this is life-threatening, thinks Ralph Nader, the man who became famous in the 1960s with his crusade against the Chevrolet Corvair.

Author, lawyer and political activist Nader (88) single-handedly nearly killed the Chevrolet Corvair with his book Unsafe At Any Speed. Now he is again clapping unheard of loudly, but about Tesla. “Tesla’s massive deployment of so-called Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology is one of the most dangerous and irresponsible actions by an automaker in decades. Together, we must send an urgent message to careless regulators that Americans should not be test dummies for a powerful, high-profile company and its famous CEO. No one is above the murder laws,” Nader said on his own website. “This nation should not allow this malfunctioning software, which Tesla itself warns can do the wrong things ‘at the worst’ time on the same streets where children walk to school.”

What Nader specifically wants is for the American security watchdog NHTSA to take action. Otherwise, according to Nader, many more deaths will be caused by FSD. “The NHTSA has the authority to act quickly to prevent such disasters. NHTSA has been investigating Tesla and its fully self-driving (autonomous) technology for several years now. NHTSA should use its safety recall authority to order that the FSD technology in every Tesla is being removed.”