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
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    512 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
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      -182 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.

      • @A7thStone
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        142 months ago

        It’ll be ready next year I promise.

        • ms.lane
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          12 months ago

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

      • @then_three_more
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        02 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
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          22 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.

  • @Gingerlegs
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    432 months ago

    Ah, all electric but still gaslighting I see

    • @FlexibleToast
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      152 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.

      • SkaveRat
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        2 months ago

        while it took a short hit, it was back up higher again shortly after sadly

        • @FlexibleToast
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          12 months ago

          That followed an announcement for their battery business if I’m not mistaken. Which isn’t what Musk was trying to pump.

        • @FlexibleToast
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          72 months ago

          I think that was a big reason why the stock took a hit. He keeps getting caught faking it, and even his fakes are decades behind Boston Dynamics.

          • nickapos :clubtwit:
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            12 months ago

            @FlexibleToast yeah also I think people started realising that he does really know what he is talking about and he is just scamming people. Tesla autopilot not working as promised and all the accidents have played a part in this.

    • Scrubbles
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      22 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

  • @[email protected]
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    132 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.

  • @[email protected]
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    132 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.

  • @[email protected]
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    12 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.