Despite record performances by Tesla, Musk’s statements have made markets wary of the company’s financial situation.
Electric vehicles (EVs) manufacturer Tesla reported record earnings for the second 2023 quarter, but its stock price tumbled over 8% following CEO Elon Musk’s worrying statements.
Tesla is the leading electric car company, with over 60% of global market share. Its flagship, the Model Y, was the world’s most popular car in the first half of the year.
On Wednesday, Tesla reported a record $23.33 billion in revenues for the second quarter. The market, however, did not react immediately as profits were surprisingly low.
By comparison, in the previous quarter Tesla made $2.27 billion in profits out of $16.93 billion in revenues. This quarter, Tesla only cashed in $2.51 billion.
In fact, similarly to Netflix’s quarterly earnings, Tesla’s revenues come from simple price tweaks. Earlier this year, the EV company significantly lowered prices, resulting in more cars being sold for much less profit.
"We continue to target 1.8 million vehicle deliveries this year but expect Q3 production will be a little bit down because we’ve got summer shutdowns for a lot of factory upgrades," said Elon Musk following the earnings report.
He also declined to provide a due date for the long-awaited Cybertruck. Tesla’s futuristic vehicle was announced in 2019 but has yet to see the light of day. However, Musk said pre-orders will be satisfied this year and mass releases will arrive in 2024.
AI in Tesla cars
"You see a lot of AI companies doing you know LLMs and what not and I’m thinking, if they’re so great why can’t they make a self-driving car? Because it’s harder!" Musk continued.
Self-driving cars have been a long-standing promise of Tesla. Being announced almost ten years ago, the technology was revealed to be more difficult than initially thought.
Elon Musk had promised that the first Tesla to tour the United States coast-to-coast would come in 2017. Six years later and we are not even close.
In 2023, however, Musk announced new AI software for Tesla cars. Dojo, as the training computer is called, will be "at the forefront of AI development," Musk said.
Elon Musk has been in the back seat of the ongoing AI craze, publicly declaring his worries about future AI uses. A few months ago, he published an open letter calling for a six-month AI development halt.
However, Musk is well-aware that self-driving vehicles require artificial intelligence. Indeed, he recently founded his own AI company called XAI.
How and when self-driving vehicles will actually be commercially available remains a mystery. That is, of course, if they ever come to pass.
