Elon Musk leans into perceptions of Tesla as an AI leader, but doesn’t signal concrete progress on self-driving technology! While the company has an evident lead over peers in manufacturing EVs, it is in fact a long way from proving that it has one in automating driving to the safety standards regulators will require. This task is proving both laborious and hugely competitive, with Alphabet, General Motors and Intel’s Mobileye all jostling for pole position and Tesla taking a controversial and unique hardware-light approach.
On the Wednesday’s earnings call (7/19), Chief Executive Elon Musk failed to reiterate the hope he expressed three months ago that production this year might reach two million vehicles. The company instead stuck with its existing base case of 1.8 million, citing summer shutdowns for factory upgrades.
True, Tesla is growing sales very quickly, but not earnings currently, given the vehicle-price cuts, and its scope to profit from AI remains wildly uncertain. If that makes this year’s rally sound overdone, Musk himself had some sage advice on Wednesday’s call: “When the market is overly exuberant, you can sell.”