Founder of The Dawn Project Dan O’Dowd analyses the damaging effect of Elon Musk’s politics on Tesla’s reputation. Dan’s comments were published in Rolling Stone on 7 March 2025, and can be read here.
Dan O’Dowd commented: “Musk’s involvement in politics could be the downfall of Tesla. Most companies work hard to maintain relationships on both sides of the aisle. Musk has taken a partisan position against his customer base, who are overwhelmingly Democratic voters. Musk has brought this entirely upon himself and his chickens are now coming home to roost.
“The Dawn Project has been calling for a boycott of Tesla since our Super Bowl commercial in February 2024 in order to keep our roads safe from defective “Full Self-Driving” Teslas. Musk’s recklessness with respect to Tesla Full Self-Driving has been evident for several years. He has repeatedly claimed that the software is safer than a human, despite never being willing to demonstrate his trust in the software by sitting in the back seat and letting it drive him from A to B, just like the real robotaxis from Waymo and Zoox do.
“Firebombing Tesla dealerships is reprehensible and ineffective. The only way that people can effectively bring Musk to heel is to cut off his funding with this nationwide boycott of Tesla.”