Tesla’s death is “not close” says Musk, as operating margin drops to 2%

Summary

Musk and the other Tesla executives on the call continued to tout the importance of artificial intelligence and autonomous driving to the company's future. Musk described a "convoy of Teslas" driving in circles around its base in Austin, Texas, to "figure out long-tail things," Musk said. Autonomous or even partially automated driving systems never make it into the list of "must-haves" for American car buyers, but Tesla is pinning its hopes on selling such systems here and abroad. In China, Musk described bold user behavior. "They have a lot of fun with the cars. I saw one guy take a Tesla on—autonomous on a narrow road across like a mountain. And I'm like, very brave person. And the Tesla's driving along on a road with no barriers where he makes a mistake, he's going to plunge to his doom," he said. Tesla charges almost $9,000 for its partially automated driving system in China, which can now no longer be called "FSD" or "Full Self Driving" in the country. Earlier this week, the Chinese government banned misleading terms like "smart" or "autonomous" in vehicle advertising. And Tesla's domestic rivals like Zeekr and BYD—which now outsell the American company—are giving away their own partially automated driving systems for free. Number go up It all may sound like a great big bucket of bad news for the car company, but the stock market has a different take. "If this is the worst it gets for Tesla, then certainly there must be some upside for the stock once tailwinds, such as the highly-awaited cheaper model and the Robotaxi, finally hit the market later this year," wrote Thomas Monteiro, senior analyst at investing.com. Predictably, Tesla's stock price has risen steadily in premarket trading immediately after announcing its results.