Dubai, United Arab Emirates (AP) – Elon Musk said he expects hundreds of thousands of autonomous teslas to be on the road not requiring any human intervention by the end of next year and that he is determined to remain CEO of the company for at least five years.
The billionaire also declared Tuesday in a pair of interviews that he had no regrets at the idea of directing the government’s efficiency department under the Trump administration. He has minimized any damage to the Tesla brand of this role, saying that the demand for teslas has experienced a “major rebound”. This is potentially a great development since the latest public sales in Europe and the United States show a sharp drop in sales for several months.
“We will probably have hundreds of thousands, if not more than a million, Teslas self-controlled in the United States,” Musk said in a CNBC interview on Tuesday, adding that passengers will not need to pay attention to the road. “As if you are sleeping and you wake up to your destination.”
His commentary on staying as CEO was made earlier during the day at Qatar Economic Forum organized by Bloomberg.
Musk promises fully autonomous and autonomous vehicles “next year” for a decade, but the pressure is now underway, while Tesla is starting a test of its autonomous taxi service in Austin, Texas, next month.
“This is a watershed for Tesla, and Musk doubles these figures,” said Dan Ives, Wedbush Securities analyst. “These are fairly optimistic forecasts.”
Tesla’s shares closed almost 1% to $ 345 on Tuesday. After a steep fall this year, the action increased by more than 50% in just over a month, investors, investors applauded Musk’s decision to reduce his time in Washington and spend more time led the business.
Musk has also given new details on the Austin service, saying that Tesla Taxis will be followed remotely at the start and “geofisce” to certain areas of the city deemed to be navigating. He told CNBC that he expected to initially execute 10 taxis, increase this number and start offering service to Los Angeles, San Antonio, San Francisco and other cities.
Federal security regulators have recently asked Tesla to explain how her driverless taxis safely operate in Austin when there is fog, dazzling the sun, rain and other low visibility conditions that have been linked to accidents involving the company’s driver’s assistance software. However, federal regulators have limited powers on new Tesla taxis that work without steering wheel or brake pedals, because there is no national regulation on autonomous technology.
Musk also rejected rivals of autonomous vehicles such as Waymo, a driverless taxi service that has taken front on Tesla with already 250,000 trips paid each week in several cities.
“I think it will be better,” he said about Tesla taxis. Then added: “I don’t really think of competitors. I just think of making the product as perfect as possible. ”
The question of his expected mandate in the first job of Tesla came in a video appearance at Qatar Economic Forum after Musk went to Doha as part of Trump’s Middle East trip last week. Musk, who also directs SpaceX, Starlink and other companies, offered tersed answers and has become combative on questions concerning his companies and how his involvement in politics had affected his businesses.
The moderator Mishal Husain asked: “Do you see yourself and have you been committed to being still CEO of Tesla in five years?”
Musk replied: “Yes.”
Husain pushed further: “No doubt at all?”
Musk added, groan: “I can’t always be there if I died.”
Tesla faced intense pressure while Musk worked with Trump as part of Doge, especially in the middle of her Cup campaign through the American federal government.
When asked if what he had faced made him think twice about his involvement in politics, Musk was silent and looked at the camera for a while before responding.
“I did what should be done,” he said. “I am not someone who has ever committed violence and yet massive violence has been committed against my businesses, massive violence has been threatened against me.”
He added: “Don’t worry: we come for you.”
Asked about his political gifts, which include At least $ 250 million To support Trump’s elections, Musk said he “would do much less in the future.”
“I think I did enough,” he said.
Musk saw a Tesla Pay package, which he had to, once estimated at $ 56 billion, Arrested by a Delaware judge. Musk referred to Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick on Tuesday as a “activist who cosplay a judge in Halloween costume”.
However, he acknowledged that his Tesla salary was part of his consideration about staying with the automaker, although he also wanted “sufficient voting control” so that he “cannot be ousted by militant investors”.
“It is not a thing of money, it is a reasonable control over the future of the company, especially if we build millions, potentially billions of humanoid robots,” he added.
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Condon reported in New York.
