The tech CEO spending millions to stop Elon Musk

[iemanja]

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — When Dan O’Dowd had his midlife crisis, he bought two near-identical Tesla Roadsters, the first model the electric carmaker ever produced. This year, the 66 year-old tech entrepreneur added another to his collection: a Model 3 equipped with Full Self-Driving Beta — a software program that allows the car to drive on its own on highways and busy city streets.

The third Tesla is crucial for an unusual hobby: O’Dowd is waging a multimillion-dollar campaign to get Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software off the roads — before Tesla CEO Elon Musk follows through with plans to make the tech available worldwide by the end of the year.

O’Dowd, who made his fortune selling software to military customers, has been using the Model 3 to test and film the self-driving software. He’s documented what appear to be examples of the car swerving across the centerline toward oncoming traffic, failing to slow down in a school zone and missing stop signs. This summer, he triggered an uproar by releasing a video showing his Tesla — allegedly in Full Self-Driving mode — mowing down child-size mannequins.

“If Tesla gets away with this and ships this product and I can’t convince the public that a self-driving car that drives like a drunken, suicidal 13-year-old shouldn’t be on the road, I’m going to fail,” O’Dowd said in an interview from his Santa Barbara office, where glass cases display his collection of ancient coins and auction-bought mementos from NASA moon missions.

No paywall version: https://archive.ph/KgyRJ#selection-249.0-249.48
WaPo link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/13/dan-odowd-challenges-tesla-musk/

[usonian]

1. Articles on Dan O'Dowd

https://danodowd.com/
Dan O’Dowd - Your Source for Software that Never Fails and Can’t Be Hacked
The Dawn Project Founder & CEO
Green Hills Software Founder & CEO

https://ballotpedia.org/Dan_O'Dowd
Dan O'Dowd (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. Senate to represent California. O'Dowd lost in the primary on June 7, 2022.

O'Dowd also ran in a special election to the U.S. Senate to represent California. O'Dowd lost in the special primary on June 7, 2022.
Elections

https://moneyinc.com/dan-odowd/
10 Things You Didn’t Know about Dan O’Dowd

https://nypost.com/2022/04/21/tech-billionaire-running-for-senate-just-to-bash-elon-musk-tesla/
Tech billionaire Dan O’Dowd running for Senate just to bash Elon Musk’s Tesla

https://dawnproject.com/about-our-founder/
About Our Founder. (Dawn Project)

[NJCher]

2. Interesting

Can’t believe I didn’t know about him.

[orleans]

3. good luck to him. i think self driving cars are insane

but maybe i'm just old fashioned

[calimary]

13. You're not the only one, orleans.

It’s not an idea I’d jump at. I guess I’m pretty old-fashioned, too.

[SergeStorms]

5. I want my flying car.

We were supposed to have flying cars by now, and dammit, I want my flying car. 😫

[Demovictory9]

6. How is a flying car different from a plane?

[GReedDiamond]

12. You can (or should be able to) land/park your f-car...

...in your driveway, as well as the local WalMart parking lot.

Or any other place one may park their non-flying vehicle today.

Which means, there is no flying car, not now or anytime soon.

Not until you "humans" master gravity.

[usonian]

7. Thelma and Louise had one.

Briefly.

[SergeStorms]

17. It didn't fly so much....

as it glided - very briefly - then it became a Newtonian gravity experiment.

[yankee87]

8. Jetsons

The Jetsons had flying car, and I want one also.

[Rstrstx]

9. You SURE?

[love_katz]

10. Hahahaha!

[brush]

14. No thank you. And there are no lane markers in the air.

Your head would have to be on a constant 360 degree swivel to try to stay unscathed by idiots coming from every direction...and those would be the SOBER ones.

[SergeStorms]

16. That's a hover bike.

I want George Jetson's flying car so I can commute to Spacely Sprockets everyday.

Is that too much to ask? We've been waiting far too long!

[iemanja]

21. One that works would be nice.

[mucifer]

19. Or at least a car that folds into a briefcase.

[Kablooie]

11. His videos are faked.

He simply drives over a mannikin and claims that Tesla's self driving software did it. It is obvious to anyone who is familiar with the system that it wasn't being used.

I've been driving with the software for over a year now and every few weeks a new version of the software is uploaded, each time with incremental improvements. It still makes occasional bonehead moves such as getting in the wrong lane to make a turn. Once it gets to the turn it realizes it's in the wrong lane and turns legally then re-routes it's navigation path.

Drivers are told they have to remain vigilant because the software is not finished. It monitors your eyes and you have to keep your hands on the steering wheel. If the car senses you aren't paying attention it blares a warning tone and turns off the automation for the rest of your drive.

As to school zones, it's a known issue. The software is beta and is not finished so slowing for school zones hasn't been implemented yet but will be in time. It also needs to recognize hand signals from emergency workers and other drivers but that hasn't been implemented yet either. There are many fine details that are in the works and if more are discovered it's just a matter of time before they will be added.

This December a major new version will be released that addresses many of the system's current weaknesses. They say the software will never be finished. They can constantly improve it indefinitely into the future.

From my experience watching the development, I would expect that in perhaps a year or so the system will actually be autonomous and drivers will be able to sit back and relax for most of the ride.

[StoolPigeon]

15. Another tech CEO spending BILLIONS to stop Elon Musk

His name is Elon Musk.

[ProfessorGAC]

18. Well Played!

And, welcome to DU.

[StoolPigeon]

23. Thank you

[marble falls]

20. Badda-Bing!

[FakeNoose]

22. IMHO I believe self-driving vehicles - as envisioned by Tesla - would be a disaster

In no time those SDV's would be used for all kinds of illegal activities.

Think of it - drug dealers, prostitutes, gang-bangers, numbers runners, and others could all use SDV's for their regular daily activities. Not to mention college pranksters, under-age kids, elderly people with dementia - it would spiral out of control in no time. How would the police get a handle on the misuse of SDV's? If and when they'd stopped the vehicles, whom would they arrest?

It seems that the unique ingenuity of some people in this country is to find illegal ways of abusing the high-minded inventions of others.