California Senate candidate's ad takes aim at Tesla's self-driving technology

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - There's a new political ad taking aim at Tesla and its self-driving technology.

The ad is from Dan O'Dowd, the billionaire founder of a Santa Barbara tech company who is running against U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla. 

On Thursday, O'Dowd told KTVU he is concerned about safety with Tesla's self-driving features.

"We need to remove these cars from the road before we can really be safe," O'Dowd said. 

O'Dowd said that Tesla’s FSD Beta is "unbelievably bad," "fails all the time" and should be "banned from America’s roads."

In an interview with Politico, O’Dowd stressed that his would be a single-issue campaign: His disdain for Tesla. 

KTVU reached out to Tesla for a comment on the campaign and has not heard back. 

This story was written from Oakland, Calif.