Safety regulator condemns use of children in Tesla safety demonstration – report

The peak road safety authority in the US has denounced those willing to use children to test controversial pedestrian-avoidance technology on Tesla vehicles.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in the US told news outlet Bloomberg the use of children in video demonstrations of Tesla’s autonomous driving software should never be attempted, as it poses a real danger to their lives.

The comments come following a video posted on YouTube by Tesla fanatic Whole Mars Blog showing children as young as five being told to run across a street while a car is moving, or being made to stand in the middle of the roadway as the Tesla Full Self-Driving (FSD) system is engaged.

The man behind the video argued the children involved were perfectly safe, as the car was moving at walking pace and had their father behind the wheel during the test, ready to take over.

“No one should risk their life, or the life of anyone else, to test the performance of vehicle technology,” the NHTSA said in the wake of the event.

“Consumers should never attempt to create their own test scenarios or use real people, and especially children, to test the performance of vehicle technology.”

The regulator confirmed it owns a 2017 Tesla Model S 90D with Full Self-Driving capability – with tests performed under strictly controlled environments – telling Bloomberg “it could be highly dangerous for anyone to attempt to test vehicle technologies on their own”.