Elon Musk is willing to bet Teslas profits on a driverless dream
Summary
Elon Musk is years behind on his ambition to render Tesla’s cars fully autonomous. Musk said on a conference call last week that Tesla has the wherewithal to sell cars at “zero profit” and then earn immense sums later off driverless software. “We are the only ones making cars that technically we could sell for zero profit for now, and then yield actually tremendous economics in the future through autonomy,” Musk said April 19. “I am not sure how many of you will appreciate the profundity of what I have just said, but it is extremely significant.” The challenge Musk has had turning driverless visions into reality is not stopping him from going forward with markdowns that threaten to set off a price war. That has dented the company’s margins and spooked investors concerned about deteriorating profits.