By almost every metric, Tesla’s First-quarter earnings on Tuesday were dismal. The company’s revenue and profit missed expectations. Revenue fell 9% year-on-year, the worst decline since 2012.
But Chief Executive Musk has downplayed much of it and suggested investors turn their attention elsewhere.
Rather than dwelling on quarterly financial numbers or the massive reorganization announced last week, Musk reiterated his vision for Tesla: a company developing artificial intelligence software to turn existing cars into self-driving vehicles that provide drivers with Companies making money from specialized robotaxis and self-driving cars.
This is the Tesla that Musk is selling Wall Street, and he tells anyone who has doubts to stay away.
“If someone doesn’t believe Tesla is going to solve the self-driving problem, I don’t think they should be an investor in the company,” Musk said on the earnings call. “We will, and we do,” he added.
Despite the disappointing results, Tesla shares soared 13% in after-hours trading following Tuesday’s earnings report. Part of that optimism has to do with Tesla’s announced plans to begin production of new affordable electric models “in early 2025, or even late this year.”
The stock rose on the earnings call as Musk turned to the future. He casually mentioned that the company’s robotaxi (which he had long said was coming) would be called CyberCab. In Tesla’s shareholder report released ahead of the conference call, the company showed off a “ride preview in the Tesla app.”
Musk also talked about a self-driving network, like Uber With Tesla self-driving cars.
“When the car is not moving,” Musk said, “it is possible to actually run distributed inference through the hardware in the car.”
Musk has been making statements like this for years.
In 2015, Musk told shareholders that Tesla cars would be “fully autonomous” within three years. they do not. In 2016, Musk said that by the end of 2017, Tesla vehicles would be able to drive off-road without any human intervention.
In 2019, during a conference call with institutional investors that helped him raise more than $2 billion in funding, Musk said Tesla would have 1 million robotaxi-equipped vehicles on the road by 2020, with each vehicle driving 1 million people a week Able to complete 100 hours of driving work, this makes money for their owners.
He said at the time that robotaxis would make Tesla a $500 billion company. Tesla’s current market capitalization is around this level and it could even top $1 trillion in 2021, but the company has never delivered on its self-driving promises.
nbc news recent reports The company has not even sought a license that would allow it to test and operate robotaxis in three states, including California and Nevada, where it employs thousands of people.
Separately, the California Department of Motor Vehicles filed legal action against Tesla, claiming it engaged in false advertising and marketing of its driver assistance systems, Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD). Autopilot is standard, and FSD costs $99 per month, or $8,000 upfront. Both require a human driver to drive, ready to steer or brake at a moment’s notice. Tesla is defending itself against the charges in court.
“More valuable than anything else”
During the earnings call, Musk said he believed FSD would be ready to expand into China soon, pending regulatory approval. He made no mention of the lawsuit by California regulators.
Musk said people who haven’t tried Tesla’s latest FSD update “really don’t understand what’s going on.”
His rants weren’t limited to cars.
At Artificial Intelligence Day in August 2021, Musk said Tesla would build a humanoid robot, now called Optimus. The company didn’t have a hardware prototype to show off at the time, so an actor in a spandex leotard danced on stage in its place. In 2022, Tesla launched the Optimus hardware prototype.
On Tuesday, Musk said Optimus has been able to perform some unspecified factory tasks.
A model of Tesla Inc.’s planned humanoid robot Optimus is on display at the Seoul Mobile Show on Thursday, March 30, 2023, in Goyang, South Korea. Getty Images
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
“We may be able to sell it before the end of next year,” he said. “Optimus Prime is going to be more valuable than everything else put together because if you have a sentient humanoid that can sense reality and perform tasks as required, there’s no meaningful limit to the economies of scale.”
One question many investors and analysts are asking is whether all of these capital-intensive and far-flung projects belong to Tesla.
Musk owns 20.5% of Tesla shares, more than 715 million shares, As of March 31, According to the company’s Recent agency filings. He used about 238.4 million of those shares as collateral to secure personal debt. In January, he began seeking more control of Tesla.
“I’m uncomfortable with Tesla becoming the leader in artificial intelligence and robotics without having about 25% of voting control,” he said. wrote In a post on X. “Enough influence, but not enough that I can’t be overthrown.”
Musk has created a new startup, xAI, to develop artificial intelligence products to compete with products from other companies. Microsoft-Support OpenAI. Prior to founding xAI, he served as CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and was the technical director of Company X, which he owned. He is also the founder of the brain-computer interface company Neuralink and the tunnel company The Boring Co.
Piper Sandler analyst Alex Potter asked Musk on the earnings call if he would “come up with any mechanism” to ensure he has the necessary voting control at Tesla, because if not, ” “Core part of the company” thesis could be at risk. “
“No matter what, even if I were abducted by aliens tomorrow, Tesla will solve the self-driving problem, maybe a little slower, but at least it will solve the self-driving problem of the vehicle,” Musk said. “I don’t know if it’s going to win with Optimus Prime or if it’s going to win with future products, but Tesla has enough power to solve the problem of self-driving vehicles even if I disappear.”
But he was quick to tell investors that the company needed him to achieve his loftiest goals.
“If we had a super-sentient humanoid robot that could follow you indoors and you couldn’t escape, we’re talking about a Terminator-level risk, yes, without some meaningful impact on how it’s deployed, I would feel uncomfortable,” he said.
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