Nov 5 (Reuters) - When Reuters reported in April that Tesla had scrapped plans for a long-promised, next-generation $25,000 electric vehicle, the automaker’s stock plunged. Chief Executive Elon Musk rushed to respond on X, his social-media network.

“Reuters is lying,” he posted without elaborating. Tesla’s stock recovered some of its losses.

Six months later, Musk appears to have backed into an admission that Tesla dropped its plans for a human-driven $25,000 car. He said in an Oct. 23 earnings call that building the affordable EV would be "pointless” unless the car was fully autonomous.

His latest remarks came in response to an investor asking: “When can we expect Tesla to give us the $25,000 non-robotaxi regular car model?”

Musk responded: “We’re not making a non-robo…,” before he was interrupted by another Tesla executive. Musk later added: “Basically, I think having a regular $25K model is pointless. It would be silly.”

  • psmgx@lemmy.world
    553·
    8 months ago

    Translated: the Chinese won that battle, and TSLA doesn’t have enough R&D to chase self-driving and cheap, esp. given how unimpressive their self driving is compared to competitors

    • ms.lane@lemmy.worldEnglish
      522·
      8 months ago

      Actually read the article: It’s the exact opposite, they’re still making the FSD version.

      They’re not making the version that people can drive.

        • ms.lane@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          8 months ago

          It probably won’t, but the article doesn’t say they’ve dropped FSD like the parent poster implied.

      • then_three_more@lemmy.world
        11·
        8 months ago

        You missed the “and” in the comment you were replying to. They can do fsd or they could do cheap. Not both. Though, to be honest I doubt they can do either.

        • ms.lane@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          8 months ago

          The article literally says they’re doing FSD and cheap, together.

          What they aren’t doing is Cheap and Human operated.

          It’s a choice of Cheap+FSD or Expensive+Human Controlled or FSD. There won’t be a cheap human operated model.

    • FlexibleToast@lemmy.world
      14·
      8 months ago

      He rolls out the same BS every time the stock needs to be pumped up. The good thing is, it didn’t work this time. This unveil actually made the stock drop because they’re so far behind.

    • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.techEnglish
      41·
      8 months ago

      Just another 2 years bro we’re so close we’re almost there it’s in beta bro trust me it’s almost there

  • HiddenLayer555@lemmy.mlEnglish
    24·
    8 months ago

    “Bro full self driving is 5 years away bro trust me bro”

  • smb@lemmy.ml
    22·
    8 months ago

    i’ld like this summary the most:

    Musk now says it’s ‘pointless’ to build a Tesla

    😁

  • skozzii@lemmy.ca
    151·
    8 months ago

    Tesla stock is by far the most overvalued stock in the world, and its not even close.

    The only thing close to it is the worthless djt stock that dictators use to funnel money to fund the poisoning of our democracy.

  • theshatterstone54@feddit.uk
    13·
    8 months ago

    Right, so that was his plan all along?

    Keep on promising a full self driving experience, which even now won’t really happen,

    and then promising an affordable Tesla,

    which he can then backtrack on?

    Overpromise and underdeliver.

    That’s the Musk motto.

    Can’t wait to see him fail to bring humanity to Mars, and end up trying to credit himself when NASA do it.

  • n3m37h@sh.itjust.works
    111·
    8 months ago

    Musk, it’s pointless listening to your bullshit, now SHUT THE FUCK UP!

  • humanspiral@lemmy.ca
    1·
    8 months ago

    It’s a weird design for a robotaxi specific car. I guess it can be cheap as a 2 seater. But other manufacturers are investing in the robotics needed for low cost cars. The aero dynamics aren’t typically helpful for taxis. I understand he will try to milk existing models until FSD instead of innovating on them.