Tesla deletes web page listing Full Self-Driving software's limitations hours after The Dawn Project links to it in press release

SANTA BARBARA, Calif., July 24, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- In a recent press release highlighting safety defects in Tesla's Full Self-Driving software, safety advocacy group The Dawn Project linked to a page on the Tesla Model 3 manual on Tesla.com which described the software and listed its many limitations and safety defects.

Within four hours of the press release being published on over 400 news websites Tesla deleted the page from its website. The URL hyperlinked in the press release now returns a 404-error page. However, the page is saved on Wayback Machine here.

Tesla then published a new page in the Tesla Model 3's online manual for Full Self-Driving software, which no longer listed the limitations but instead linked to a new web page listing the limitations of Full Self-Driving and many other Tesla features such as Smart Summon.

Tesla also removed this damaging web page from the instruction manuals of all its current car models: the S; the 3; the X; and the Y. However, Tesla did not remove the page from its historic manuals. For example, the page is still available on the Tesla website in the manual for the 2012-2020 Model S, here, and as a PDF here.

Tesla has blocked Wayback Machine from crawling the new Limitations and Warnings page on its website, please find a PDF of the page here.

Dan O'Dowd, Founder of The Dawn Project, commented: "Tesla deleting this page from the website hours after it was shared with the media speaks volumes. Fortunately the page remains available at a number of other locations.

"It appears that Tesla is concealing data regarding its Full Self-Driving software. Fortunately for the public, Tesla will not be able to obfuscate their self-driving crash data from the regulators for much longer. NHTSA wrote to Tesla earlier this month demanding further information on the 840 crashes that the manufacturer has already had to report to the regulator and NHTSA will now fine Tesla hundreds of millions of dollars if they fail to comply with the request."

Notes to editors:   

Evidence that the page was active as of 21 July can be found here. however the page was subsequently deleted by 22 July.

Dan O'Dowd's comments refer to the letter the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sent to Tesla on 3 July 2023, a copy of which can be read here.

Dan O'Dowd is an entrepreneur and CEO with over 40 years' experience in designing and writing secure, safety-critical software. Dan has built operating systems for the U.S. military's fighter jets and some of the world's most trusted organizations such as NASA, Boeing, and Airbus. 

In 2021, Dan O'Dowd founded The Dawn Project, which campaigns to make computers safe for humanity by ensuring all software in safety-critical infrastructure never fails and can't be hacked. The first danger The Dawn Project is tackling is Tesla's deployment of unsafe Full Self-Driving cars on our roads.

SOURCE The Dawn Project