When Tesla releases its first quarter earnings this afternoon, the company’s CEO Elon Musk will field the usual questions about new products, new factories, and progress toward its futuristic vision of self-driving cars and robot workers. But Musk will also face increasingly urgent questions about its current state of affairs — and why everything seems to be going to shit.

Earlier this month, the company reported its first year-over-year sales drop in four years, a sign of rougher waters ahead. Tesla’s stock has fallen more than 40 percent since the start of the year, including a 13 percent drop in the last week. The company laid off over 14,000 employees last week, 10 percent of its global workforce — which could end up being closer to 20 percent when all’s said and done, according to Bloomberg. Today’s earnings report is expected to include Tesla’s lowest profit margins in six years, a sign that rampant price-cutting continues to exact a toll.

  • @[email protected]
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    415 months ago

    They might finally develop the affordable, mass market car that Musk has been claiming is in the works for years, instead of idiotic and expensive passion projects like the cybertruck.

    • @proudblond
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      285 months ago

      Musk thinks he already did that with the model 3, right? Billionaires have no concept of “affordable” after all.

      • @[email protected]
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        115 months ago

        It’s the Model 2, which he has being talking about for years but it’s not clear if it will ever happen.

      • @negativeyoda
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        65 months ago

        “What could a banana possibly cost Michael? $10?”

    • @[email protected]
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      95 months ago

      Idk, I think the idea of selling trucks want bad. Americans love trucks. That being said, the execution seems very poor.

      • AmbiguousProps
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        5 months ago

        The idea of a truck EV isn’t bad market wise, look at Rivian for example. It was purely poor execution, no doubt attributed to Musk.

      • @[email protected]
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        5 months ago

        The execution is very poor, and I’d rather these dangerous monstrosities go away and be replaced by smaller, less dangerous, and more practical vehicles. And ideally, car ownership will decline over the long term with viable alternatives to driving hopefully being developed across the world (but that’s a whole other discussion).

      • Jenntron
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        45 months ago

        Yes. Try living in DWF. The truck are the problem for all kinds of reasons.

    • @SlopppyEngineer
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      35 months ago

      Musk instead is now going all in with AI and Robotaxis.

      • @[email protected]
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        45 months ago

        Probably realised that “full” self-driving the way people think of it is not likely to happen in our lifetimes. And Tesla’s existing system is an out and out scam.

        But I expect he’ll try and combine it with his stupid tunnel idea, instead of, I don’t know, a train?

        • @SlopppyEngineer
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          45 months ago

          But I expect he’ll try and combine it with his stupid tunnel idea

          That was the original idea. It was supposed to be self-driving buses to get a higher throughput. Then the buses went away and were replaced by normal cars, and then self driving was replaced with human drivers. The convenient lift to get to the tunnels was replaced by normal escalators and what was left from all those lofty plans was the underground taxi farce, with rgb lighting.

          • @zeppo
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            15 months ago

            There’s no way in fucking hell ever that I would go into one of Muck’s underground death traps. It’s such an insanely dumb idea.

        • magic_lobster_party
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          45 months ago

          It’s funny how so many were confident FSD really was safer than human drivers 10 years ago. Some even said it’s irresponsible not to let these self driving cars drive on the street.

          • @zeppo
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            25 months ago

            Some people are still claiming that.