Automobile Enthusiasts
Related: About this forumMusk can't deal with the nitty gritty of running a competitive business.
Keeping ahead when people are chasing is hard. Tesla is loosing ground in the market, old designs fewer cutting edge features and price are cutting into his market. Not to mention his political views that he broadcast out.
Tesla seems to be planning a move to robo taxis, which they are behind in, and humanoid robots.
"Elon Musk still makes some of Americas best electric cars. Earlier this summer, I rented a brand-new, updated Tesla Model Y, the first refresh to the electric SUV since it debuted, in 2020. Compared with even just two years ago, when the Model Y became the worlds best-selling car, many companies make great EVs now. Some of them have the Model Y beat in certain areas, but for the price, the Tesla is still the total package.
Now, imagine how good Teslas could be if Musk apparently wasnt so bored with making them. With the exception of the struggling Cybertruck, Tesla hasnt released an entirely new electric car in five years. Musk has indicated that he wants Tesla to primarily focus on building robotaxis and robots. Autonomous-vehicle technology is the product that makes Tesla a ten-trillion company, he told his biographer, Walter Isaacson. People will be talking about this moment in a hundred years. All the while, Tesla has continued to make almost all of its money from selling cars.
But now its clearer than ever that Teslas future is not in selling cars. The companys latest Master Plan IV, which was released earlier this week, makes no mention of any new electric cars in the works. It is instead a technocratic fever dream, predicting a future in which humanoid robots made by Tesla free us from mundane tasks and create a utopia of sustainable abundance. To the extent that cars are mentioned at all, its in the context of robotaxis, or the batteries that power them. In other words, Tesla, the biggest EV company in the country, wants out of the car business."
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/09/tesla-elon-musk-master-plan-robotaxi/684122/

WSHazel
(567 posts)More PT Barnum than Nicola Tesla. He gets control of companies, then is a master of promoting those companies (Tesla, SpaceX and XAI).
Tesla is a car company that is valued (200x pe) like it is a startup that has developed a revolutionary technology. In fact, it is a shrinking car manufacturer that is betting the company on its lousy self-driving technology that is way behind Googles and is one of over 20 companies pursuing this capability. This company should be trading at a multiple closer to GM and Ford.
flvegan
(65,243 posts)Having a live person in the driver's seat of the robotaxi, like a "driver" what a fucking genius this guy is!