- YouTube removed a video testing whether Tesla's Full Self-Driving software stops for real children.
- The platform said the video violated its guidelines against content that endangers minors.
YouTube removed a video that showed Tesla fans testing out with real children whether the carmaker's Full Self-Driving (FSD) software would stop for kids.
The video was posted by Whole Mars Blog's on YouTube last week after Omar Qazi, the person who runs the Tesla fan account, posted a call-out seeking a San Francisco parent willing to use their child for a test of the software. Tesla investor and CEO of Volt Equity, Tad Park, agreed to run a test with Qazi using his daughter and five-year-old son.
CNBC was the first to report the video had been removed from YouTube. A YouTube spokesperson told Insider the video violated the site's guidelines related to content that endangers minors.
"YouTube doesn't allow content showing a minor participating in dangerous activities or encouraging minors to do dangerous activities," the spokesperson said. "Upon review, we determined that the videos raised to us by CNBC violate our harmful and dangerous policies, and as a result we removed the content."
Qazi did not respond to a request for comment ahead of publication, but posted an alternate link to the video on Friday via Twitter.
Park, who participated in the test with his son and daughter, told Insider he feels YouTube was pressured by CNBC to remove the video, which he called "benign."
"This wasn't a test, as we were not pushing the system in any way," he told Insider "It was simply a demonstration of the capabilities of the system and that it could recognize pedestrians."
Park told CNBC that the car never went over eight miles per hour in the tests involving his children and that he was prepared to stop the car if FSD didn't halt the vehicle.
The video was posted after a marketing campaign from Tesla critic Dan O'Dowd showed a Tesla seemingly using FSD and crashing into a child-sized mannequin. The video sparked outrage in the Tesla community, with many Tesla fans seeking to defend the software, and O'Dowd's ad led to multiple copycat tests with varying results.
Park and Qazi were also not the only Tesla fans to test the software using real children. Earlier this month, a North Carolina man tested out the software using his 11-year-old son and posted the video on YouTube. In two videos, the driver, Carmine Cupani, goes as fast as 35 miles per hour while his son stands in the middle of the street. Both times the vehicle either comes to a stop or slows and moves around his son.
Cupani told Insider he took "all safety steps necessary to keep everyone uninjured and alive" and the test was "performed by a professional driving instructor and future technology expert."
The video has not been removed by YouTube.
Last week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a statement to Bloomberg warning drivers that testing out the beta software on kids could have dire consequences.
"No one should risk their life, or the life of anyone else, to test the performance of vehicle technology," NHTSA said in a statement to Bloomberg. "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 NHTSA told the publication it has been testing Tesla's software for several months. The agency launched a program for automated testing in 2020.
Though FSD claims to be fully self-driving, in reality it operates as an optional add-on that enables Teslas to automatically change lanes, enter and exit highways, recognize stop signs and traffic lights, and park. Tesla has told drivers that the system does not replace a licensed driver and instructs them to keep their hands on the wheel and be prepared to take over when the system is running.