"It would be silly."
Let Them Eat Cars
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has seemingly given up on an affordable personal vehicle.
During this week's earnings call, the increasingly unpredictable CEO went as far as to mock the idea of a non-autonomous $25,000 car, dismissing it as "pointless."
That's because Musk has doubled down on the concept of a "robotaxi" that can be loaned out by owners to make money while they're not using it — essentially an AI-powered Uber.
While such a future is likely still many years out — if it ever materializes, that is — the billionaire has said he's willing to stake Tesla's entire fate on the success of an autonomous vehicle service. Therefore, according to Musk's internal logic, an affordable personal vehicle that isn't capable of fully driving itself simply doesn't make sense.
"It would be silly," he told investors, as quoted by Business Insider. "It would be completely at odds with what we believe."
Musk, who has an extremely long track record of making misleading and downright false prognostications, claimed that it's "blindingly obvious" that all Tesla vehicles will be autonomous in the future.
Driving While Dumb
In other words, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Musk spent most of this week's call discussing the eventual release of a "robotaxi" dubbed Cybercab.
Tesla showed off what appeared to be an early prototype of the vehicle at its "We, Robot" event earlier this month, a sleek coupe with only two seats that was mysteriously missing a charging port.
But whether the concept ever becomes a reality remains unclear at best. The EV maker has a mountain of red tape ahead of it until it can kick off a robotaxi service — not to mention a host of bugs to iron out with its so-called "Full Self-Driving" software.
Meanwhile, Musk has spent much of the year flip-flopping on the idea of a much cheaper $25,000 vehicle. In April, Reuters reported that it had scrapped plans for an inexpensive car.
At first, Musk accused the agency of "lying" only to confirm plans to accelerate production of a cheaper model. But now it sounds like that reporting was correct, per Musk's latest remarks.
Some investors likely won't respond kindly to the CEO's latest comments. After all, releasing a next-generation passenger vehicle that's far more affordable than its current luxury-priced offerings could serve to prop up a company that has repeatedly missed sales targets.
Nonetheless, Tesla's shares have soared over the last 24 hours, likely the result of better-than-expected earnings and Musk proclaiming that his "best guess" is that "vehicle growth" will reach 20 to 30 percent next year.
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