Tesla’s This fall 2024 earnings convention name was loaded with Elon Musk’s trademark swagger, big-time confidence, and daring predictions. From full self-driving (FSD) to humanoid robots, Musk painted a imaginative and prescient of a future the place Tesla dominates not simply the automotive sector however synthetic intelligence and robotics. Listed here are the eight greatest takeaways from the decision:
1. Tesla Mannequin Y leads your complete trade
Musk began off by celebrating Tesla’s manufacturing and supply achievements. “In This fall, we set a report and delivered autos at an annualized fee of practically 2 million a 12 months,” he stated, emphasizing that the Mannequin Y was the best-selling automobile of any form globally. “That is value noting. Not simply the perfect electrical car—the perfect car of any form on Earth, No. 1 was Mannequin Y.” Tesla’s shareholder letter added, “we now have made it even higher, with the New [Juniper] Mannequin Y now launched in all markets.”
2. Full self-driving (FSD) is the important thing to Tesla’s future
Musk restated his long-standing perception that car autonomy would be the greatest driver of Tesla’s worth. “Autonomy is like 10X-ing,” the expansion potential for Tesla, in accordance with Musk. He additionally reaffirmed Tesla’s aggressive push towards deploying an autonomous ride-hailing community, stating, “We shall be launching unsupervised full self-driving as a paid service in Austin in June.” He additionally talked about that the rollout might embrace California as nicely this 12 months.
3. Tesla could possibly be essentially the most useful firm on the planet—by far
How far? Musk threw down the gauntlet — making maybe his most audacious monetary prediction but: “I see a path. I’m not saying it’s a straightforward path, however I see a path the place Tesla is value greater than the following prime 5 firms mixed.” He acknowledged the challenges forward however insisted it might be an achievable objective, given the corporate’s fast developments in synthetic intelligence, self-driving expertise, and robotics.
4. FSD is just not a toddler anymore — it’s rising up quick
Musk addressed ongoing skepticism about Tesla’s FSD progress, utilizing this analogy: “If somebody’s final expertise with FSD was a toddler, they suppose it is going to be a toddler endlessly. However clearly, it’s rising up—it walks and talks now.” He reiterated his problem to skeptics: “Strive it. When’s the final time you tried it?”
5. The robotaxi revolution is coming
Tesla’s FSD developments are main on to what Musk calls “the biggest asset worth improve in human historical past.” He defined, “A passenger automobile sometimes has solely about 10 hours of utility per week. As soon as that automobile is autonomous, my tough estimate is that it’s in use for at the least 35, perhaps 50 hours per week.” He emphasised that the identical car could possibly be used for each folks and cargo transportation, vastly growing its worth. That stated, Tesla’s shareholder letter gave this timeframe: “Our purpose-built Robotaxi product – Cybercab – will proceed to pursue a revolutionary ‘unboxed’ manufacturing technique and is scheduled for quantity manufacturing beginning in 2026.”
6. Tesla’s future shall be ‘ballistic’
Musk predicted that Tesla’s progress within the coming years shall be exponential. “Issues are actually going to go ballistic subsequent 12 months and actually ballistic in ‘27 and ‘28,” he stated. He highlighted that Tesla is laying the groundwork for a producing and AI revolution that may drive unprecedented growth on the firm. Tesla’s shareholder letter additionally forecasted large issues within the brief time period: “2025 shall be a seminal 12 months in Tesla’s historical past.”
7. Tesla made $600 million from Bitcoin
Tesla’s Chief Monetary Officer, Vaibhav Taneja, highlighted a big monetary achieve from the corporate’s Bitcoin holdings. “Our web earnings in This fall was impacted by a $600 million mark-to-market profit from Bitcoin as a result of adoption of a brand new accounting commonplace for digital property,” he stated. This marks one of many largest cryptocurrency-related good points in Tesla’s monetary historical past — an attention-grabbing flip of occasions because the incoming administration pivots to a extra Bitcoin-friendly future.
8. Tesla’s new (cheaper) fashions are coming quickly
Tesla’s shareholder letter notes, “Plans for brand new autos, together with extra reasonably priced fashions, stay on observe for begin of manufacturing within the first half of 2025. These autos will make the most of points of the next-generation platform in addition to points of our present platforms and shall be produced on the identical manufacturing traces as our present car lineup.” This strategy, Tesla said, will allow “greater than 60% progress over 2024 manufacturing earlier than investing in new manufacturing traces.”
Closing Ideas
If there’s one factor Musk made clear, it’s that Tesla is just not slowing down. From FSD to Optimus, the corporate is betting large on car autonomy and synthetic intelligence. Whether or not Tesla can ship on these aggressive timeframes stays to be seen, however one factor is for certain—Musk is as assured as ever. And as historical past has clearly demonstrated, betting towards him isn’t a profitable technique.
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Co-founder of EVANNEX, Matt Pressman owns each a Tesla Mannequin S and Mannequin 3 and stays a long-term investor in TSLA inventory. He’s written extensively about Tesla and his work has been revealed in CleanTechnica, InsideEVs, and Teslarati. He’s additionally appeared quite a few occasions on Fox Enterprise Information and PBS to offer his views on Elon Musk and Tesla.
