Consumer Advocate Ralph Nader Demands NHTSA Recall Tesla's Full Self-Driving
Ralph Nader calls on federal regulators to immediately recall Tesla's Full Self-Driving software, citing research that shows the technology malfunctions every eight minutes. This urgent plea comes just days before Tesla plans to release a major new update to the controversial system.
Consumer advocate Ralph Nader calls on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to recall Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology, labeling it one of the most dangerous and irresponsible actions by a car company in decades. Nader demands that the software be removed from approximately 100,000 Tesla vehicles currently equipped with the system. He bases his urgent appeal on research from The Dawn Project, which indicates that the FSD software malfunctions every eight minutes.
Nader emphasizes the extreme risk this technology poses to pedestrians, specifically noting that malfunctioning software should not share streets with children walking to school. He strongly criticizes federal regulators for allowing the public to act as test dummies for a powerful corporation and its celebrity CEO. The consumer advocate points out that Tesla's own warnings admit the system might do the wrong thing at the worst possible time, making the widespread deployment a severe public safety hazard.
This call for a recall arrives just before Tesla's scheduled August 20 release of FSD version 10.69, an update that CEO Elon Musk hypes as a major release. While Tesla claims FSD is not responsible for any crashes, NHTSA is actively investigating multiple crashes involving Tesla's Autopilot feature. Nader's push highlights the growing tension between Tesla's aggressive software rollout timeline and the urgent need for independent safety verification.