Tesla held its annual shareholder assembly in Austin on Tuesday, an occasion that Tesla has now taken to calling its Cyber Roundup.
There have been 5 proposals on the agenda, together with one which pushed Tesla’s board to provide you with a public succession plan for CEO Elon Musk and different “key individuals” whose conduct and loss might create a threat for the corporate and shareholders.
Whereas Tesla will publish the official vote tallies later within the week, the board beneficial shareholders vote towards the important thing particular person threat proposal, so it probably received’t cross.
“At a time when Tesla’s technological management needs to be on show, the funding neighborhood largely sees us as adrift, with administration targeted on all issues not-Tesla, watching as Tesla’s model favorability dropped by 15 factors final 12 months, one thing that prices us margins,” mentioned Karen Robertsdottir, a shareholder in Reykjavik, Iceland, throughout the occasion.
“When folks have a look at this firm…they see the corporate as a synonym for its CEO, and the dialogue turns to every part aside from the place it needs to be targeted.”
With out explicitly saying it, Robertsdottir nodded to issues many traders have had with Musk’s controversial on-line presence, in addition to his potential distraction away from Tesla after buying and taking up the social media platform Twitter. Musk has additionally been criticized for repeatedly promoting shares of Tesla to fund the Twitter buyout.
When Musk formally purchased Twitter in late October, Tesla shares closed at $228.52. On Tuesday, they closed at $166.52.
Musk mentioned Tuesday that he has no intention of stepping down as CEO of Tesla.
“I believe Tesla’s going to play an essential position in AI and AGI and I believe I have to oversee that to ensure it’s good,” he mentioned.
AGI refers to “synthetic basic intelligence,” the idea that an AI can be taught to perform any mental activity that people or animals can carry out.
Shares of Tesla remained considerably flat after the assembly, rising solely about 1% in after-hours buying and selling. That lackluster response from traders is likely to be a response to a lot of the assembly merely rehashing highlights from the final 12 months, fairly than sharing a lot information.
That mentioned, Musk did present Cybertruck and Roadster updates, teased two new electrical automobiles, mentioned Tesla may shift its promoting technique and shared his macro-economic expectations for the subsequent 12 months. Tesla additionally introduced JB Straubel as a board member.
JB Straubel again at Tesla as a board member
Tesla shareholders elected JB Straubel as an unbiased board of director. Attendees of the shareholder occasion cheered the return of the previous Tesla CTO and co-founder. Straubel can be the founder and CEO of battery recycling startup Redwood Supplies.
Shareholders additionally elected three administrators to function a three-year time period. Tesla nominated Musk, Straubel and present chair Robyn Denholm.
Straubel will take over the spot vacated by Hiromichi Mizuno, the previous chief funding officer of Japan’s $1.5 trillion pension fund.
The brand new board member joined Tesla again in 2004 and was CTO for 14 years. Straubel was behind Tesla’s battery expertise and led the development and idea of Gigafactory Nevada, in addition to the manufacturing ramp of the Mannequin 3 sedan. Straubel left Tesla in 2019 and was changed by Drew Baglino, vice chairman of expertise.
Musk teases two new EVs
Through the occasion, Musk teased two new electrical automobiles that may be a part of Tesla’s lineup. The CEO mentioned Tesla was within the technique of constructing one and designing one other, however he wasn’t clear if he meant that Tesla was constructing a prototype or a manufacturing car.
Musk mentioned he didn’t wish to get into specifics of the brand new automobiles, which might require their very own launch occasions, however Tesla did show a silhouette of one of many automobiles. Primarily based on the dimensions, it’s potential that Tesla was teasing the $25,000 hatchback that Musk talked about again in 2020 throughout the firm’s battery day.
Each of the brand new automobiles which might be coming to Tesla’s lineup are anticipated to be reasonably priced automobiles that promote at a lot greater volumes.
“Elon’s guess is that we’ll in all probability make in extra of 5 million items per 12 months of those two fashions mixed,” mentioned Musk.
Cybertruck updates
Musk mentioned Tesla will ship its first Cybertrucks later this 12 months and will be capable of ship 250,000 to 500,000 per 12 months as soon as manufacturing has began.
Tesla first introduced the Cybertruck in 2019, however car manufacturing has been repeatedly delayed. On Tuesday, Musk apologized for the delays and promised the product could be higher than expectations.
In July final 12 months, the CEO mentioned Tesla goals to start manufacturing for the Cybertruck in summer season 2023.
Musk famous throughout the shareholder assembly Tuesday that the Cybertruck may have loads of attachment factors in order that third events can develop attachments to reinforce the truck and “flip it right into a camper.” Final week, throughout Tesla’s groundbreaking ceremony of its lithium refinery plant in Texas, Musk drove a Cybertruck full with a roof rack accent. Musk has additionally mentioned that the car will likely be “waterproof sufficient to serve briefly as a ship.”
Subsequent-gen Tesla Roadster manufacturing delayed, once more
“We count on to finish the engineering and design of the next-gen Tesla Roadster this 12 months and hopefully begin manufacturing — this isn’t a dedication — hopefully begin manufacturing subsequent 12 months,” mentioned Musk.
Musk referred to the Roadster as “the cherry on the icing on the cake,” that means he doesn’t count on it to be an enormous income contributor.
“It will likely be a modest contributor to profitability, however it will likely be sick,” he mentioned.
The second-generation Roadster, an electrical sports activities automotive that made a shock debut in November 2017, was meant to come back to market in 2020 however has been repeatedly delayed because the high-priced automotive took a backseat to different Tesla merchandise just like the Mannequin 3 and Mannequin Y.
‘Don’t have a look at the markets for the subsequent 12 months’
Musk speculated that the subsequent 12 months will likely be a tough one for the financial system because of a wide range of elements. Increased rates of interest, he mentioned, may have an enormous impact on the affordability of automobiles.
“The overwhelming majority of individuals purchase automobiles based mostly on the month-to-month cost, so it’s like how a lot is the month-to-month cost?…Can they afford to pay the cost because the rates of interest improve and credit score tightens?”
Musk famous that almost all banks are struggling simply to remain alive within the wake of the disaster sparked by the Silicon Valley Financial institution collapse, which implies that “rising the auto mortgage portfolio isn’t the very first thing on their minds.”
On a macro world financial degree, Musk expects the subsequent 12 months to be tough for everybody, Tesla included. He expects to see a whole lot of firms go bankrupt, however mentioned that Tesla is in place to climate the storm and “emerge stronger than ever.”
“It essential to do not forget that there are good instances and there are darkish instances, however then the great instances comply with the darkish instances,” mentioned Musk. “So my recommendation could be, don’t have a look at the markets for the subsequent 12 months. If there’s a dip, purchase the dip, and I believe you’ll not be sorry.”
Tesla to strive conventional promoting
Tesla, an organization that has lengthy eschewed typical promoting, goes to “check out somewhat promoting and see the way it goes.”
Tesla doesn’t pay for conventional promoting like different automakers. And it hasn’t actually wanted to. The corporate has develop into extremely standard via different strategies of promoting, like emails and referral applications that incentivize present homeowners to draw prospects, and, in fact, Musk’s many tweets.
Now, Musk appears prepared to shift that line of considering as the corporate goals to advertise new automotive options and promote the affordability of its automobiles.
“There are superb options and performance about Teslas that folks simply don’t learn about, and though there’s clearly lots of people that comply with the Tesla account and my account…it’s preaching to the choir, and the choir is already satisfied.”
We don’t but know what a Tesla promoting marketing campaign would seem like, however already many are speculating that Twitter will likely be residence to Tesla’s first advertisements.
‘Tesla may have a ChatGPT second’
Nary a Tesla occasion goes by by which Musk doesn’t wax lyrically in regards to the potentialities of the automaker’s AI — Musk mentioned Tuesday that it’s “by far essentially the most superior real-world AI.”
Immediately, this AI manifests in Tesla’s superior driver help system, confusingly dubbed Full Self-Driving (FSD). The newest model of FSD can deal with driving duties each in city areas and on highways, nevertheless it nonetheless requires a human to remain alert and take over management of the car as wanted. Roughly 400,000 Tesla homeowners in North America have bought the $15,000 beta software program.
The opposite means Tesla’s AI will manifest is within the firm’s humanoid robotic, Optimus. Tesla displayed new movies of Optimus growth and testing on the shareholder occasion.
“As full self-driving will get nearer and nearer to generalized real-world AI, that very same software program is transferrable to a humanoid robotic,” mentioned Musk.
“My prediction is that almost all of Tesla’s long-term worth will likely be Optimus,” the CEO continued, reiterating some extent he has made earlier than.
After the shareholder occasion, Musk joined CNBC’s David Faber for an interview that lined a broad vary of matters, from Tesla to Twitter, content material moderation to free speech, the ethics of AI and Musk’s early funding in OpenAI, the startup behind the wildly standard conversational AI mannequin ChatGPT.
“Tesla may have a ChatGPT second if not this 12 months then no later than subsequent 12 months,” mentioned Musk, referring to the expertise’s swift exponential breakthrough. “All of the sudden 3 million automobiles will be capable of drive themselves with nobody. After which 5 million after which 10 million.”