Dan O’Dowd, a vocal critic of Tesla‘s Full Self-Driving (FSD) software, has revealed himself as the buyer of three original Tesla Roadsters discovered in a shipping container at a Chinese port last year.
Unique find: These three Roadsters — two in orange and one in red — are unique as they have never been titled. They were originally purchased over 13 years ago and shipped to China, but the company that bought them went out of business, leading to the container being detained by Chinese authorities. At the time, each Roadster cost $160,000.
Dowd’s collection: O’Dowd bought the Roadsters for a combined price of $800,000, his spokesperson told Benzinga, which brings the price per vehicle close to $266,667 — more expensive than what one would pay for two top-end Cybertrucks.
He already owns two other red Roadsters nicknamed Candy and Mandy. One of the two was acquired when Tesla announced it was stopping production. In total, he now owns eight Teslas: five Roadsters, two Model 3 sedans, and an original Model S.
Background And Advocacy: O’Dowd is the CEO of Green Hills Software and founder of The Dawn Project, which aims to promote safer software across various applications, including in electric vehicles. However, he and The Dawn Project are most well-known within the electric vehicle community for their campaign advocating a ban on Tesla’s FSD software.
Anti-FSD campaign: Earlier this month, The Dawn Project released two advertisements at the Super Bowl championship, calling for a boycott of Tesla. The ads accused Tesla of failing to address safety concerns raised by the group regarding its FSD software and urged viewers to boycott the company.
“When you buy a new Tesla, you are financing and enabling Elon Musk to put a dangerous, unfinished product on our public roads,” O’Dowd stated. “Boycott Tesla now to keep your kids and families safe from Tesla’s self-driving cars.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk responded to the allegations by saying O’Dowd “has lost his marbles.”
Motivations For purchase: In an exclusive interview with Benzinga last year, O’Dowd mentioned that he uses a Roadster to commute to work, his wife uses the Model S, and The Dawn Project uses the two Model 3s for their experiments.
At Odds Or Not? A spokesperson for The Dawn Project told Benzinga that while O’Dowd opposes the “defective” FSD, he does not have an issue with Tesla as a whole. “These three examples are particularly special and valuable given their amazing story and the fact that they are the only Roadsters in the world that have never been titled, also making them a very good investment!”
Check out more of Benzinga’s Future Of Mobility coverage by following this link.
Read Next: Tesla A ‘Partner’ And Not Competition, Says BYD — Chinese Firm Not Eyeing US Market Just Yet
Photo via Shutterstock
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Trade confidently with insights and alerts from analyst ratings, free reports and breaking news that affects the stocks you care about.
