The electric car manufacturer Tesla has traditionally dispensed with advertisements, but the CEO wants this line Elon Musk (51) break now. “We’re going to try some advertising and see how it goes,” Musk said at Tesla’s shareholder meeting in Austin, Texas on Tuesday. Given the high demand, Tesla did not need paid ads for a long time. Musk used his own popularity and other means as marketing tools – most notably the online platform he has since acquired Twitter. But that seems increasingly exhausted – this year Tesla lowered the prices several times
.
However, Tesla does not yet have a mature plan for advertising, Musk said to the US broadcaster CNBC after the annual general meeting
. “I’ve only just agreed to that, there’s no full strategy yet.” However, ads could be a way to expand Tesla’s customer base. The e-car pioneer is pursuing ambitious growth targets, but the competition is getting fiercer. There is also a threat of economic headwinds. Tesla is not “immune” to recession risks, Musk acknowledged. He expects a difficult economic environment in the next twelve months. The Tesla boss again criticized that the interest rate level of the US Federal Reserve is slowing down the economy. Higher interest rates make car loans, among other things, less attractive.
Musk repeated in the interview
his claim that Tesla is on the verge of turning its vehicles into autonomous cars. Tesla is the only automaker that believes it can achieve full autonomy with a software update, he said. It looks like it will happen this year, Musk said.
Tesla had that again and again years ago announced the imminent start of autonomous driving
, Musk agreed to critical inquiries. He was probably a “pathological optimist”. But now he is confident that he drove through San Francisco for several days without having to take much control of the vehicle from the software. Like years ago, he again promised that Tesla owners would be able to send their cars off as robotic taxis to earn money.
Even new version of the autopilot is no more than an assistance system
Tesla lets customers into the USA test a new version of the “Autopilot” assistance software called “completely self-driving”. At the same time, the group emphasizes that “autopilot” does not turn the vehicles into self-driving cars and that the people at the wheel retain responsibility. According to the definition commonly used in the industry, the variant in the test is no more than an assistance system.
The General Motors subsidiary Cruise and the GoogleSister company Waymo, meanwhile, lets robotic taxis drive through San Francisco without a driver at the wheel. Musk claimed in the interview that Waymo technology only works on precisely measured roads and is confused by changes such as accidents or construction work. Tesla, on the other hand, is further and has “practically” developed a solution that works everywhere, he said.
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User videos of tests of the new “Autopilot” version from the past few months showed some erratic behavior of the software. After several accidents, the “autopilot” system is also the focus of investigations by US authorities.
In the hour-long CNBC interview, Musk also defended his controversial tweets, condemned working from home and expressed his belief that there were Chinese plans to occupy Taiwan.
“I will say what I want to say – and if the consequence is losing money, then so be it”
Elon Musk when asked about controversial tweets
Among other things, Musk was credited for his recent tweets about the financier and Holocaust survivor George Soros addressed, in which he claimed, among other things, that he hates humanity. When asked if he was harming his company’s business with such tweets, Musk ticked off: “I will say what I want to say – and if the consequence of it is losing money, then so be it.”
The tech billionaire, who ordered all Tesla and Twitter employees to return to the office after the pandemic, called working from home “morally wrong”. Why should people who build or repair cars and houses go to work – and those who sit in front of computers shouldn’t, he argued.
Regarding Taiwan, Musk said it was China’s official policy to bring the island under control. Therefore, he thinks there is “a certain inevitability in the situation”. Warn the US China always before military action in Taiwan. A large part of the global production of state-of-the-art chips is manufactured on the island. Tesla would be less affected by a conflict over Taiwan than other companies, Musk said: “I wouldn’t be sure where you would get an iPhone, for example.” Tesla has a large factory in Shanghai, China.
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On the subject of artificial intelligence, Musk claimed that Tesla is superior to everyone: “I’m not even sure who number two is.” Musk was one of the founders of the ChatGPT developer OpenAI
. “I am the reason OpenAI exists.” Meanwhile, Musk founded his own new AI company, X.AI, which he didn’t want to talk about just yet.