Tech CEO Dan O'Dowd Launches U.S. Senate Campaign To Make Computers Safe for Humanity

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Apr 19, 2022, 15:10 ET

Self-Made Billionaire Launches Multimillion-Dollar Nationwide TV Ad Campaign To Ban Tesla's Full Self-Driving Technology

Dan O'Dowd: "Elon Musk is pushing Tesla's defective Full Self-Driving technology, and it's threatening people across the country. The government continues to allow Tesla to put unregulated, dangerous, and defective software on the street in the hands of 60,000 untrained drivers. This is a public safety threat and Congress must take immediate action."

SANTA BARBARA, Calif., April 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today tech billionaire Dan O'Dowd, founder and CEO of Green Hills Software, a company which specializes in software reliability and security, launches his U.S. Senate campaign to make computers safe for humanity, including calling for a ban on Tesla's Full Self-Driving technology.

Starting today, Dan is running a multimillion-dollar nationwide television advertising campaign, with an ad showing actual videos of shocking safety defects in Tesla's Full Self-Driving software.

Click here to watch Dan O'Dowd's ad on the dangers of Tesla's Full Self-Driving cars:

Titled "Unsafe at Any Speed" – a tribute to consumer advocate Ralph Nader's famous crusade against the auto industry's resistance to safety measures – the ad features harrowing moments where Tesla's FSD software malfunctions and frightened Tesla passengers and drivers can be heard swearing and gasping in fear.

Dan has built operating systems for some of the world's most trusted organizations and companies such as NASA, Boeing, Airbus, and the U.S. military's fighter jets. He recently founded The Dawn Project to campaign for better software in safety-critical computer systems.

Now Dan is applying his expertise in fail-safe technology to stand up to Elon Musk's reckless deployment of unsafe Full Self-Driving cars on our roads.

A Dawn Project study of Tesla's Full Self-Driving cars showed they malfunction on average every 8 minutes in city driving. "If a person drove that recklessly, they would fail their driver's test, and if Full Self-Driving can't pass the test, it should not be allowed to be driving on our roads," said Dan O'Dowd.

Dan O'Dowd commented: "My mission in life is to make computers safe for humanity. Connecting the power grid, hospitals, and millions of cars to the Internet with software riddled with bugs and security defects has turned these systems into potential weapons of mass destruction in the hands of hackers. Ordinary commercial software was never intended to be used in systems which people's lives depend on.

"The first danger I am tackling is Elon Musk's reckless deployment of unsafe Full Self-Driving cars on our roads. Tesla's FSD software is the most unreliable safety-critical computer system I have ever seen. Tesla warns their drivers that FSD 'might do the wrong thing at the worst time.' This is completely unacceptable for a vehicle on public roads.

"Tesla Full Self-Driving should be banned from our roads immediately. We did not sign up our families to be Tesla crash test dummies."

About Dan O'Dowd

Dan O'Dowd is an engineer, entrepreneur, CEO, and expert in safety-critical software and cyber security. Dan has over 40 years of experience designing and writing the operating system for hundreds of the world's most safety-critical computer systems. In 2021, Dan founded The Dawn Project, to ensure all software in safety-critical infrastructure is secure and reliable. Now Dan is launching a campaign for a safer country by calling out Tesla's' Full Self-Driving cars. Dan founded Green Hills Software in 1982, and has served as President and CEO for the past 40 years. O'Dowd is a 1976 graduate of the California Institute of Technology and is a recipient of the Caltech Distinguished Alumni Award, the highest honor which Caltech bestows upon a graduate. Dan lives with his wife in Santa Barbara, California, and they have two grown sons.

A link to Dan's Senate campaign website can be found here.

Video - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1800029/Dan_ODowd.mp4

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SOURCE Dan O’Dowd for a safer country