Tesla Faces Another Year of Unfulfilled Elon Musk Promises
Elon Musk makes a series of bold claims for Tesla in 2024, including affordable robotaxis and autonomous fleets, but continues to rely on loose definitions of self-driving technology.
Elon Musk spends 2024 making ambitious promises for Tesla, continuing a long pattern of setting bold deadlines that ultimately go unfulfilled. Despite a history of missed targets since 2015 regarding true self-driving capabilities and driverless ride-hailing networks, the Tesla CEO still captures investor imagination and maintains a massive $1.3 trillion company valuation.
The most notable shift in 2024 involves Musk abandoning plans for a traditional $25,000 electric vehicle with a steering wheel and pedals. He calls such a concept "pointless" and "silly," deciding instead to prioritize the Cybercab robotaxi as the sole affordable option moving forward, a sudden pivot that results in mass layoffs across the company.
Musk boldly claims that Tesla currently produces around 35,000 autonomous vehicles per week and insists the "vast majority" of its 7 million historic cars are capable of autonomy. However, these statements rely on a very loose definition of the technology, as Tesla still does not manufacture any vehicles that are safe to operate without a human driver behind the wheel.