Branded as “Amazing Abundance,” Tesla’s (TSLA) new mission captures Elon Musk’s optimism—and his expectation that Optimus robots could eventually reshape U.S. economic output.
On the company’s earnings call with analysts, Musk laid out his vision for the company as it transitions from a purely auto manufacturing entity to a leading manufacturer of advanced and humanoid robots.
“Optimus will be a very capable robot,” Musk said on the call, confident that the humanoid robot could ultimately have a “meaningful” impact on U.S. GDP, as well as Tesla’s ability to ultimately produce 1M units per year
To achieve this ambitious goal, the company is sunsetting the Model S and Model Y vehicles next quarter given the increased focus on autonomy. Consequently, Tesla is converting the Fremont factory for Optimus production.
Concerning the deployment of the robotaxi, Musk dismissed reports that robotaxis in Austin are being followed by a monitoring vehicle, repeating several times through the call that “no one is following the car.”
“The level of autonomy will increase dramatically every three months,” Musk said, with the cars currently operating at 100% fully self-driving. Eventually, only a fraction of miles driven will not be autonomous, as CFO Vaibhav Taneja added that autonomy software will “be the driver of growth [for Tesla] from now on.”
To finance the development of the Optimus robot, FSD, and the Cybercab, as well as a $2B investment in xAi, Tesla (TSLA) projects capex to be in excess of $20B this year.
Taneja cautioned that the biggest constraint globally, however, continues to be on the battery pack. Additionally, he expects the company will experience margin compression in the energy business from increased low-cost competition.
Musk ended his statement reiterating the goal of achieving “amazing abundance” and creating value for the company, not by solving the easy problems, but by solving the hard ones.
“The future is more exciting than you can imagine.”