A tech founder took out a full-page ad in The New York Times to accuse Tesla of treating Full Self-Driving users like 'crash test dummies'

• A full-page ad in The New York Times described users of Tesla's Full Self-Driving tech as "crash-test dummies."
• The ad was placed by Dan O'Dowd, founder of Green Hills Software, which develops automotive software.

A tech founder has placed a full-page advert in The New York Times attacking Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology as "the worst software ever sold by a Fortune 500 company."

Dan O'Dowd, CEO of Green Hills Software, said he placed the ad under the auspices of The Dawn Project, a pressure group, as part of a campaign to ban FSD.

The ad, published in The Times on Sunday, appeared in part to be a publicity stunt designed to draw attention to O'Dowd's own company. Green Hills said earlier this month that its technology was being used to develop driver-assist software for the all-electric BMW iX.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted Sunday: "Green Hills software is a pile of trash."

FSD is controversial and critics say the name is deceptive. It's an optional add-on that enables Teslas to automatically change lanes, enter and exit highways, recognize stop signs and traffic lights, and park. Tesla tells drivers to pay full attention while using its FSD beta because it doesn't make cars fully autonomous.

O'Dowd's ad said: "We did not sign up our families to be crash test dummies for thousands of Tesla cars being driven on the public roads by the worst software ever sold by a Fortune 500 company."

It continued: "Humans are thousands of times better at driving than Tesla Full Self-Driving."

The ad went on to list several claims about errors made by FSD based on an analysis of YouTube videos.

Tesla did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

FSD is under regulatory scrutiny. The California Department of Motor Vehicles says it's revisiting its opinion not to subject FSD to its autonomous vehicle regulations because of "recent software updates, videos showing dangerous use of that technology, open investigations by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the opinions of other experts in this space."

Musk announced earlier this month that Tesla would hike the price of FSD from $10,000 to $12,000.

Tesla vehicles come with the company's Autopilot technology as standard. Autopilot uses traffic-aware cruise control to match the car's speed to surrounding traffic and also has an Autosteer mode which assists in steering within a clearly-marked lane. FSD is an optional add-on.