The electric vehicle maker is in early talks with a major
automaker to license its full self-driving technology, Musk added.
The value of Tesla vehicles would rise in perhaps "the
single biggest step change in history" once regulators approved
self-driving, he said at an earnings briefing. Musk has also said that Tesla
robots, in the pilot phase, could become a huge product. He said they could
help out on Tesla's factory floors as soon as next year, although only about 10
have been built to date.
Rising interest rates and competition from new EV makers
have forced Tesla to cut vehicle prices to gain market share, hurting margins.
But Musk said Tesla will keep pushing to expand sales volume
at the cost of profit margins, betting on the long-term value from FSD.
"Autonomy will make all of these numbers look silly," he said.
Tesla's move to license its technology comes after years of
failed promises by many to create software that lets cars drive themselves.
The licensing announcement was not surprising, given
industry failures, Ark Invest's Tasha Keeney said on Twitter. "Autonomy is
hard, it requires vast amounts of data, and I believe many automakers will fail
to achieve it on their own."
Tesla has completed over 300 million miles in the beta
version of FSD, over half of which was in the past quarter, according to an
earnings presentation.
But Musk was more cautious than usual.
"People have sort of made fun of me and perhaps quite
fairly have made fun of me, my predictions about achieving full self-driving
have been optimistic in the past," he said.
"I'm the boy who cried FSD, but I think we'll be better
than human by the end of this year," he said. "I've been wrong in the
past, I may be wrong this time." ©
Reuters
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