Anti-Tesla group says self-driving mode fails child safety tests

By Ben Barry

Anti-Tesla campaigners claim the car hit a child mannequin, which "ran" into traffic every single time while in a full self-driving mode test.

The Dawn Project - a public safety advocacy group - ran a series of tests using Tesla's full self-driving (FSD) mode 14.1.4 in Santa Barbara, California.

The team wanted to test if it would stop when it approached a stationary school bus showing flashing red lights and an extended stop sign - a driving law in place across the US.

The campaign group claim while in FSD, the Tesla complied with the rule in every instance - 25 times - when approaching the stationary school bus from behind, during tests October 2025.

But when approaching from the other direction - driving towards the front of the bus - the Tesla only halted in 15 out of 25 tests, driving past without hesitation in 10 instances.

The team went on to do the same test - approaching the bus from the front on the opposite side of the road - a further five times, but after putting the car in Mad Max mode - which allows the car to drive faster and more assertively.

The testers claim the car "failed" every time - driving past the stationary bus, failing to stop.

The Dawn Project then tested what would happen if a 'child' ran out towards the school bus from behind a parked car - by pulling a mannequin in front of the moving car.

During the seven tests conducted in Mad Max mode, the Tesla failed to stop, hitting the child every time, the group says.

Dan O’Dowd, founder of The Dawn Project, said: "Obeying the law is the bare minimum requirement for self-driving software.

"Self-driving software that illegally blows past stopped school buses and will run down children crossing the road must be banned immediately.

“Tesla’s failure to address this critical safety defect demonstrates Elon Musk’s contempt for public safety. If Tesla’s engineers cannot fix this egregiously dangerous safety defect, they should be fired. If they can fix it but are choosing not to, they should be prosecuted.

"Tesla Full Self-Driving is a defective engineering prototype riddled with critical safety defects that should not be allowed on the road."

Full results:

Number of times FSD stops approaching the school bus from behind: 25/25

Number of times FSD stops approaching the school bus from the front: 15/25

Total times FSD stopped for the school bus: 40/50

Tesla has been approached for a comment.