Musk wants more control of Tesla as it moves into AI and robotics
TeslaMusk says he is ‘uncomfortable’ about building Tesla AI and robotics products without 25% voting control:
I am uncomfortable growing Tesla to be a leader in AI & robotics without having ~25% voting control. Enough to be influential, but not so much that I can’t be overturned. Unless that is the case, I would prefer to build products outside of Tesla. You don’t seem to understand that Tesla is not one startup, but a dozen. Simply look at the delta between what Tesla does and GM. As for stock ownership itself being enough motivation, Fidelity and other own similar stakes to me. Why don’t they show up for work?
Musk reduced his ownership stake in Tesla by selling billlions to fund his purchase of Twitter. Musk’s current £56 billion compensation package is ccurently being examined by Delaware Chancery Court to see if it was fair to shareholders.
I am uncomfortable growing Tesla to be a leader in AI & robotics without having ~25% voting control. Enough to be influential, but not so much that I can’t be overturned.
Unless that is the case, I would prefer to build products outside of Tesla. You don’t seem to understand…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 15, 2024
Musk: Cybertruck parts must have ‘sub 10-micron’ Lego-like accuracy
In a leaked email to Tesla employees, Musk says that the Cybertruck needs to be manufactured to single-digit micron tolerance due to its straight edges.
Due to the nature of Cybertruck, which is made of bright metal with mostly straight edges, any dimensional variation shows up like a sore thumb. All parts for this vehicle, whether internal or from suppliers, need to be designed and built to sub 10 micron accuracy. That means all part dimensions need to be to the third decimal place in millimeters and tolerances need be specified in single digit microns. If LEGO and soda cans, which are very low cost, can do this, so can we. Precision predicates perfectionism.
Elon
King: Model S a ‘good automobile’
King says his Tesla Model S is a “good automobile” that has never given him “a speck of trouble.” Purchased in 2013, King concedes that his car does not have “the same range as” newer models, but defends the vehicle and says it “still goes fast.”
Never mind Twitter, what about the car? I bought my Tesla Model S in 2013…it’s never given me a speck of trouble. Still goes fast. Good automobile.
Never mind Twitter, what about the car? I bought my Tesla Model S in 2013. Doesn't have the same range as the newest ones, but it's never given me a speck of trouble. Still goes fast. Good automobile.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) August 13, 2023
Tesla accused of inflating in-dash range projections
Tesla faces accusations of hyping the range of its EVs, raising consumer expectations beyond what the cars can actually deliver – a practice that apparently started about ten years ago for marketing purposes. Three experts say Tesla EVs often fail to achieve their advertised range estimates and their own equipment’s projections. The company allegedly rigged its range-estimating software by writing algorithms for the range meter that would display optimistic projections for the distance the vehicle could cover on a single charge. When the battery fell below 50%, the algorithm would show drivers more realistic projections for their remaining driving range. The vehicles were designed with a “safety buffer” to prevent drivers from getting stranded as their predicted range started declining more quickly, allowing about 15 miles of additional range after the dash readout showed an empty battery. The directive to give customers optimistic range estimates apparently came from Musk himself, who “wanted to show good range numbers when fully charged.”
Tesla accused of stifling range complaints
Tesla faces accusations of creating a “Diversion Team” in Las Vegas to suppress thousands of driving range complaints from its customers. With its service centers flooded with appointments, Tesla instructed some of its employees to stop customers complaining about poor driving range from bringing in their EVs for service. Many of the customers had expected better range based on the company’s advertised estimates and the projections displayed by the cars’ in-dash range meters. Apparently, thousands of customers were told nothing was wrong with their car, even with no diagnostics. Tesla managers told “Diversion Team” employees that they were saving the company about $1,000 for every canceled appointment. Inside the Nevada team’s office, some employees celebrated canceling service appointments by putting their phones on mute and striking a metal xylophone, triggering applause from coworkers who sometimes stood on desks. The team often closed hundreds of cases a week and staffers were tracked on their average number of diverted appointments per day.
Musk wants to give amputees robotic limbs powered by brain implants
While updating investors on Tesla’s second-quarter performance, Musk says he wants to help amputees by combining advanced robotics from Tesla with brain-implant technology from Neuralink. Musk says the combination could give amputees…
a robot arm or leg that is as good, maybe better long term, than a biological one…We believe we can give, basically, a cyborg body that is incredibly capable.
Musk: Tesla may cut prices in ‘turbulent times’
On an analysts’ call, Musk says that he will cut prices again on Tesla’s vehicles due to “turbulent times”:
One day it seems like the world economy is falling apart, next day it’s fine. I don’t know what the hell is going on. We’re in, I would call it, turbulent times.
Tesla shares fall nearly 5% after Musk’s comments.
Musk sees “deflationary pressures” on lithium prices
On a Tesla earnings call, Musk says he is “seeing what seems to be deflationary pressures” on lithium prices, which “went absolutely insane there for a while.” He attributes the spike to rising commodity prices that made it difficult to cut costs in 2022. Karn Budhiraj, Tesla’s vice president for supply chain, says the reduction in commodity prices translates into thousands of dollars on a per-vehicle basis, adding that the company is extending some fixed-price contracts with suppliers through the end of this decade to lock in the lower costs.
Warren urges SEC to investigate Tesla over Twitter ties
Warren sends a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, urging them to investigate Tesla over possible conflicts of interest, misappropriation of corporate assets, and other negative impacts to Tesla shareholders related to Musk’s Twitter takeover. Warren says the Tesla board’s “apparent lack of independence” from Musk raises questions about possible violations of security laws and exchange rules which fall under SEC’s jurisdiction.
Musk: Tesla could achieve ‘full self-driving’ this year
Musk says Tesla could realize “full self-driving” vehicles “later this year.” During the opening ceremony of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, the entrepreneur says via video link that although he has been wrong in previous predictions about autonomous driving, he feels like Tesla is closer to it than ever.
In terms of where Tesla is at this stage, I think we are very close to achieving full self-driving without human supervision. This is only speculation, but I think we’ll achieve full self-driving, maybe what you would call four or five, I think later this year. I feel like we’re closer to it than we ever have been.
No one is further along in General autonomy than Tesla
"Tesla will achieve full self driving later this year." Elon Musk
— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) July 7, 2023
Musk: Tesla’s market cap directly tied to solving autonomous driving
At Paris’ VivaTech innovation conference, Musk says Tesla’s market capitalization is directly tied to whether it can solve autonomous driving. French businessman Antoine Arnault ribs Musk about Tesla’s $827 billion market cap, noting it dwarfs LVMH’s valuation. Musk says he has little insight into stock price movements and suggests that Tesla’s market cap is tied to whether the company is able to perfect autonomous driving technology (he has been saying for several years that Tesla is close to solving autonomous driving, but the company’s cars still only provide advanced driver assistance features).
Valuations are a strange thing. Sometimes I’ve said, ‘Hey, I think the stock price is too high at Tesla,’ and then the stock price goes up. I’m like, ‘okay.’…Really the value of the company is primarily on the basis of autonomy. If you look at our total vehicle output, it’s almost two million vehicles this year or something like that. But that’s still only 2% of total vehicle production. The potential for autonomy is that the value of autonomy is so high, that even if you have a discount, a percentage probability of autonomy happening, that is so incredibly valuable.
He also repeats the idea of Tesla owners turning their vehicles into a fleet of self-driving robotaxis, which he once said would be implemented by 2020.
Musk: ‘Battery supply constraints’ delaying Tesla Semi production
Speaking at an energy conference in Texas, Musk says Tesla does not expect to start higher-volume production of the Semi Class 8 electric semi-truck before late 2024. He cites battery supply constraints as the reason. Musk did not explain exactly what “higher-volume production” means for the Semi, a niche Tesla product built at Gigafactory Nevada that Musk considers essential for accelerating the company’s transition to more sustainable energy.
Musk laughs at Bill Miller’s Tesla short fail
Musk tweets a laughing emoji at the legendary investor Bill Miller for shorting Tesla stock when it was less than half its current value. In a CNBC interview, Miller said that he was betting against Tesla because of increased industry competition. At that time, the company’s market value was around $357 billion, but now it stands at $774.6 billion – a 116% increase. Its stock price was at $244.40 as of last market close. The increase was fueled partly by investor hopes that the Federal Reserve would ease its interest-rate-hike campaign, along with a pickup in demand for Tesla vehicles because of price cuts in China and the US. Miller:
I shorted it recently. I shorted more today. If it goes up, I’ll short more. Tesla is now losing market share. They’re cutting price. BYD is introducing a luxury version over in China. It’s a phenomenal company, but it’s not worth $380 billion, in my opinion. I just don’t think it’s worth more than the top five automakers in the world combined. And all of them are coming with electric vehicles.
🤣
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 10, 2023
Musk: Tesla might ‘open source more code’
Musk says Tesla might open up some of its operating system code to other automakers. Responding to Ford CEO Jim Farley, he says Tesla would:
…be helpful on the software front…In the same way that maybe Android is helpful to the phone industry as sort of a general standard, like we could potentially open source more code.
Musk and Farley also hinted at other potential partnerships in the future, including in the supply chain, and when Farley questioned him about Tesla’s Corpus Christi lithium refining plant, Musk said he does not believe there are enough entrepreneurs in the U.S. digging into raw materials mining and processing. He wishes Tesla didn’t have to pick up the slack. With its nickel-based cathode refinery in Austin, Tesla might also have to get involved in anode manufacturing, but “hopefully not,” Musk says. He also believes that there will be a huge market for synthetic graphite (graphite is the main material in most lithium-ion anodes).
Musk: Tesla will ‘strongly consider’ building Gigafactory in England
In an interview for The Wall Street Journal, Musk says Tesla is preparing to look for a location to build a new battery factory later this year and would assess England as an option.
I will strongly consider England for a future location of a gigafactory. We are not currently looking at new locations but we will probably towards the end of this year.
Tesla already operates several production facilities in Fremont, California, Austin, Texas, Berlin, Germany, and Shanghai, China. A factory in Mexico was announced in early 2023, but ground has not been broken yet.
Reynolds, Musk trade deepfake ad likes
In response to a deepfake ad of Reynolds promoting Tesla:
How much do you think it would cost to own a car that’s this f–kng awesome?!…Whose balls do I have to fondle to get a Tesla instead of a s–t Corolla?”
Musk says:
Nice
Nice
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 17, 2023
Reynolds, in turn, responds to a deepfake ad featuring Musk promoting his Aviator Gin brand.
Nice
Nice
— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) May 18, 2023
Musk: Tesla will have a ‘ChatGPT moment’ with full self-driving cars
Comparing Tesla’s self-driving AI to OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot, which came to sudden public attention at the end of 2022, Musk says that a similar situation will happen when Teslas are able to drive themselves without human intervention.
I think Tesla will have sort of a ChatGPT moment, maybe if not this year, I’d say no later than next year…Suddenly, three million cars will be able to drive with no-one [at the wheel].
Musk says he envisions a future where millions of Tesla cars would operate autonomously, gradually expanding to three million, five million, and eventually 10 million self-driving vehicles. When owners are not using the vehicles, they will be used as Robotaxis, licenced by Tesla.
Comparing Tesla’s self-driving capabilities to Google’s Waymo, Musk says that while Waymo has achieved limited success in a tightly-mapped geographic area, Tesla has a more advanced and generalized solution. Musk argues that if Microsoft, and Tesla was tasked with producing a large language model akin to ChatGPT, his company would emerge victorious.
Musk: U.S.-China tensions ‘should be a concern for everyone’
Asked if he was concerned about “the growing belligerence” between the U.S. and China, Musk says that people should be concerned about tension between the two nations.
I think that should be a concern for everyone.
Musk believes China wants to take control of Taiwan – a country Tesla depends on for processors.
The official policy of China is that Taiwan should be integrated. One does not need to read between the lines…I think you should take their word seriously.
The Chinese economy and the rest of the global economy are like conjoined twins. It would be like trying to separate conjoined twins. That’s the severity of the situation. And it’s actually worse for a lot of other companies that it is for Tesla. I mean, I’m not sure where you’re going to get an iPhone, for example. There are some constraints on our ability to expand in China, and so we’re making as many cars as we can. It’s not a demand issue.
Musk to personally approve all Tesla hires
Musk tells Tesla employees in an email that he wants to personally approve every new hire at the company (which hires about 30,000 people per year). He says that he wants to get a better understanding of hiring at Tesla.
No one can join Tesla, even as a contractor, until you receive my email approval.
Angry Tesla Shanghai workers take to social media over bonus cuts
Workers at Tesla’s Shanghai factory take to social media in an attempt to appeal to Musk after their supervisors informed them of upcoming cuts to their performance bonuses. The posts are appearing on Twitter as well as forums like Baidu Tieba, with some even containing appeals to Musk’s mother, Maye Musk. Two workers at the plant, where Tesla employs around 20,000, said they were informed by their supervisors over the weekend about a cut to their quarterly bonus payout, which is linked to the factory’s performance. The workers said Tesla supervisors mentioned a “safety incident” when they were asked about reasons for the cut.
Was alerted this weekend. Looking into it.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 17, 2023