Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk on Wednesday set new goals for artificial intelligence products, including self-driving software and the use of humanoid robots in factories, although he acknowledged that he had previously been optimistic.
Musk added that the electric car maker is in early talks with a major automaker to license its fully autonomous technology.
He said at the earnings conference that the value of Tesla vehicles may rise once regulators approve autonomous driving, which may be the “biggest step change in history.” Musk also said that Tesla robots, which are still in the experimental stage, could become a huge product. He said they could help Tesla’s factory floors as early as next year, although only about 10 have been built so far.
Rising interest rates and competition from new electric car makers have forced Tesla to lower vehicle prices to gain market share, hurting profit margins.
But Musk said Tesla will continue to expand sales at the expense of profit margins, betting on the long-term value of FSD. “Autonomy will make all these numbers look silly,” he said.
Tesla’s move to license its technology comes after years of promises and failed attempts to develop software that would allow cars to drive themselves.
Ark Invest’s Tasha Keeney said on Twitter that the licensing announcement was not surprising given the industry’s failures. “Autonomy is hard, it requires a lot of data, and I don’t believe many automakers can achieve this alone.”
According to the financial report, Tesla has completed more than 300 million miles in FSD beta, more than half of which were completed in the last quarter.
But Musk is more cautious than usual.
“People kind of make fun of me, maybe quite fairly, that I’ve been very optimistic about my predictions about getting to full autonomy in the past,” he said.
“I’m that boy crying FSD, but I think we’ll be better than humans by the end of this year,” he said. “I was wrong before, and I might be wrong this time too.”
© Thomson Reuters 2023
