YouTube Pulls Video of Tesla Full Self-Driving Test Involving Kids

YouTube has removed a video in which Tesla investors test claims that cars using the latest beta version of the company’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology fail to stop for children in its path.

There’s a bit to unpack here. The controversy started when the Dawn Project—which says “the first danger [to humanity] we are tackling is Elon Musk’s reckless deployment of unsafe Full Self-Driving cars on our roads”—kicked off a nationwide ad campaign on Aug. 9 with a video depicting FSD-equipped Teslas running into child-sized mannequins:

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Tesla supporters immediately cried foul over the campaign. This prompted Omar Qazi, who runs EV news site Whole Mars Catalog, to post a seemingly ludicrous request on Twitter: “Is there anyone in the Bay Area with a child who can run in front of my car on Full Self-Driving Beta to make a point? I promise I won’t run them over.”

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It turns out that Volt Equity CEO Tad Park—a Tesla investor—was willing to participate in Whole Mars Catalog’s test of the feature’s capabilities. On Aug. 14, the duo published a video showing that FSD would swerve, stop, or slow down when it encountered a mannequin, a man, or a child standing in or crossing the road. In the clip, Park drove a Model 3 at 8mph toward one of his own children, who was unharmed.

The video had “tens of thousands of views” before YouTube removed it for violating its child safety policy(Opens in a new window),” CNBC reported(Opens in a new window). “Upon review,” a YouTube spokesperson told the outlet, “we determined that the videos raised to us by CNBC violate our harmful and dangerous policies, and as a result we removed the content.”

Whole Mars Catalog says it’s appealed the decision and posted a link on Twitter where people can download the video.

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YouTube didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.