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Recently, the co-founder of Tesla, X, and SpaceX, along with four other companies, has been in the headlines — not so much for his technological breakthroughs as for his political activities.
This is unusual for someone of his stature. Can you imagine Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, or Sergey Brin campaigning for a presidential candidate on social media and from the stage?
Anyway, this may have attracted interest in Musk’s projects, but it doesn’t seem to help when it comes to taking action. This was evident during the presentation of Tesla’s robotaxi, “We, Robot.”
In short, everyone was looking forward to it, but in the end, it came to nothing; despite the hype, investors were not impressed. As a result, Tesla’s stock plunged into the red right afterward.
The reason was not the Democrats’ sabotage but the failures of both the products presented and the event, in which it turned out that the robots operated with remote human assistance.
Not even the unveiling of the sub-$30,000 Cybercab robotaxi (a two-seater with no steering wheel or pedals) and the Robovan, a self-driving minibus, could add to the optimism.
The problem is that Tesla again claimed that fully automated driving is “only” a year or two away, something we’ve been hearing for quite some time, if not almost a decade.
The market has grown tired of these promises, and investors’ patience is wearing thin. They are worried that the company will lose its leadership in the industry; the big shows no longer impress them.
To make matters worse, news broke that four people died in a car crash in France after their Tesla reportedly hit a road sign and caught fire, which could prompt a new investigation.
As for what to expect next, the upcoming quarterly report, due on October 23, may not be to investors’ liking either, subsequently impacting the S&P 500 index.
