Elon Musk is keeping investors' dreams of a Tesla robotaxi alive

Instead of focusing on the quarterly financials or massive restructuring announced last week, Musk reiterated his vision for Tesla as a company that builds artificial intelligence software to turn existing cars into self-driving vehicles, personalized robotaxis that will generate money for their owners, and a self-driving vehicle. Transportation network.

This is the Tesla Musk is selling to Wall Street, and he's telling anyone with doubts to stay away.

“If someone doesn't think Tesla is going to solve the autonomy problem, then I think they shouldn't be an investor in the company,” Musk said on the earnings call. He added: “We will, and we will too.”

Tesla shares rose 13% in extended trading Tuesday after the earnings report, despite disappointing results. Some optimism was linked to Tesla's announced plans to start producing new models of affordable electric cars in “early 2025, if not late this year.”

The stock's rally gained momentum during the earnings call as Musk leaned into the future. He casually mentioned that the company's robotaxi, which he has long said was coming, would be called CyberCab. In a shareholder presentation Tesla published prior to the call, the company offered “a preview of ride-hailing services in the Tesla app.”

Musk also talked about an Uber-like driverless network with Tesla's self-driving vehicles.

“When the car is not moving, there is the potential to run distributed inference” through devices in cars, Musk said.

Musk has been making these types of statements for years.

In 2015, Musk told shareholders that Tesla cars would achieve “full autonomy” within three years. They didn't. In 2016, Musk said a Tesla would be able to make a cross-country trip without needing any human intervention before the end of 2017. That didn't happen either.

And in 2019, on a call with institutional investors that would help him raise more than $2 billion, Musk said that Tesla would have 1 million robotaxi-ready vehicles on the road in 2020, capable of completing 100 hours of driving work per week each, Which makes money for their owners.

He said at the time that robotaxis would make Tesla a $500 billion company. Tesla's market cap is now approaching that mark, and even surpassed $1 trillion in 2021, but the company has never been able to deliver on its driverless promises.

NBC News I mentioned recently The company did not even seek permits 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 a legal complaint against Tesla, saying it engaged in false advertising and marketing regarding its driver assistance systems – Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) systems. Autopilot is standard, and FSD costs $99 per month or $8,000 up front. Both require human drivers at the wheel, ready to steer or brake at any time. Tesla is defending itself in court against these accusations.

On the earnings call, Musk said he believes FSD will soon be ready to expand geographically into China pending regulatory approval. He did not mention the lawsuit filed by the California regulator.

People who haven't tried Tesla's latest FSD updates “don't really understand what's going on,” Musk said.

His threat is not limited to cars.

On AI Day in August 2021, Musk said Tesla would build a humanoid robot, now known as Optimus. The company didn't have a prototype device to show at the time, so an actor wearing a spandex bodysuit danced on stage instead. In 2022, Tesla revealed the hardware prototype of Optimus.

Musk said on Tuesday that Optimus is already capable of performing some unspecified factory tasks.

“We may be able to sell it abroad by the end of next year,” he said. “Optimus will be more valuable than everything else combined because if you have a sentient robot that is able to actually navigate and do tasks on demand, there is no real limit to the size of the economy.”

Whether all these capital-intensive and far-reaching projects belong to Tesla is a question asked by many investors and analysts.

Musk owns a 20.5% stake in Tesla, more than 715 million shares, As of March 31, According to the company Last agent deposit. He used about 238.4 million of these shares as collateral to secure personal debts. In January, he began seeking more control of Tesla.

“I'm uncomfortable with Tesla developing into a leader in AI and robotics without roughly 25% voting control.” books In a post on X. “Enough to be influential, but not so much that I can't be brought down.”

Musk has created a new startup, xAI, to develop AI products to compete with Microsoft-backed OpenAI products. Before starting xAI, he was already the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and was the CTO of his company, X. He is also the founder of brain-computer interface company Neuralink and tunneling venture The Boring Co.

Alex Potter, an analyst at Piper Sandler, asked Musk on the earnings call if he would “come up with any mechanism” to ensure he has the desired level of voting control at Tesla, because if not, “the fundamental part of the policy might be… The thesis is in danger.”

“No matter what, even if I were abducted by aliens tomorrow, Tesla will solve the autonomy issue, maybe a little slower but it will solve the autonomy issue for vehicles at least,” Musk said. “I don't know if it's going to win in terms of Optimus, or in terms of future products, but there's enough momentum for Tesla to solve the autonomy problem, even if it goes away, for vehicles.”

But he was quick to tell investors that the company needed him to achieve his lofty goals.

“If we have a super-sensitive humanoid robot that can follow you inside, and you can't escape from it, we're talking about Terminator-level risks, and yes I would be uncomfortable if there wasn't a meaningful level of influence on how that is deployed,” he said.