A U.S. Senate candidate is spending millions of dollars on an advertising campaign to take on the world’s richest man and his electric vehicle company.
What Happened: Technology entrepreneur Dan O’Dowd confirmed with Politico he's spending millions of dollars on a national advertising campaign aimed at Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA). The money is coming from O’Dowd directly.
The goal is to get self-driving vehicles from Tesla banned from roads.
“It fails all the time,” O’Dowd said, calling Tesla’s self-driving technology “unbelievably bad.”
O’Dowd is accused of running for Congress on a single issue, an attack on Elon Musk and Tesla. O’Dowd won’t confirm if this is the case.
Despite running for an election that will only see residents of California decide the outcome, O’Dowd is buying advertisements in 36 states. Some political experts say the anti-Tesla advertisements stand a better chance to air on television if O’Dowd qualifies for the ballot and formally runs for Senate.
“I am going to win votes. And every vote I win is someone who thinks my issue is more important than (these) other issues.”
The first advertisement from O’Dowd features a minute montage of car accidents and Tesla vehicles hitting objects. The clip also features audio from passengers questioning the vehicle malfunctions. The ad is a tribute to “Unsafe at Any Speed,” a 1965 book by former Presidential candidate Ralph Nader.
Related Link: Elon Musk Says Tesla Now Has Over 100,000 FSD Beta Testers, Up Nearly 67% Since January
Why It’s Important: The report from Politico highlighted the large number of wealthy candidates from California who lack government experience running for office.
“The main questions swirling around O’Dowd is not whether he can win, but if he wants to, what victory for him looks like and whether he complicates matters for fellow Democrats along the way,” Politico's Christopher Cadelago wrote.
A successful run by O’Dowd could hurt the Democratic Party, according to Politico. Some also see the deep pockets of O’Dowd in a state that requires significant advertising spending in political campaigns as a major advantage.
The run by O’Dowd and his taking on Tesla could also lead to challenges if it's being done as a business move. O’Dowd has denied his motives are business related. O’Dowd is the founder of Green Hills Software, a company that the entrepreneur says does not make self-driving software.
“This isn’t about competition, it’s about keeping our families and our communities safe from defective software that simply doesn’t work,” O’Dowd said.
Coincidentally, O’Dowd said he would drop out of the race if “we got full self-driving off the road.”
Musk recently highlighted that over 100,000 people have signed up for Tesla FSD beta testing.
