Elon Musk talked with Donald Trump on August 12, but the event was delayed for 40 minutes due to tech issues on platform X. The delay frustrated nearly 90K listeners, including billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman.
Musk said the delay was caused by a “massive attack” against the system. Despite that, Trump’s sound was sometimes muffled during the live talk, and Musk uploaded a higher-quality audio file later.
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It was not fresh news that Musk delayed something. During Tesla's Q2 earnings call in July, Musk postponed Tesla’s robo-taxi event from August 8 to October 10. “Moving it back a few months allowed us to improve the Robotaxi as well as adding a couple of other things for the product unveil,” he said.
Musk wants to build an “Airbnb on wheels”
The robo-taxi service will be available through the Tesla app, where users can request a ride, and Tesla will provide a car to transport them to their destination.
Musk also revealed in the July earnings call that Tesla will soon have a customer-owned fleet of approximately 7 million autonomous vehicles.
“You can think of that as being a bit like Airbnb; like you can choose to allow your car to be used by the fleet or cancel that and bring it back,” said Musk. “It will be used by the fleet all the time, can be used by the fleet some of the time, and then Tesla will take a share in the revenue with the customer.”
Related: Uber CEO flags major issues with Tesla's robotaxi plan
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is skeptical of the robot service, citing concerns that Tesla owners might not want their cars " ridden in by a complete stranger.”
Tesla slumped on Q2 earnings miss
Tesla (TSLA) stock lost 12% on July 24 after the posted second-quarter earnings.
The EV giant earned 52 cents per share adjusted, missing the analysts’ anticipated 62 cents. Revenue of $25.50 billion slightly surpassed the $24.77 billion forecast, but auto revenue declined 7% from a year ago to $19.9 billion.
While Tesla remains the top EV seller in the US, it is losing market share to rivals.
According to data from Cox Automotive, non-Tesla brands experienced a 33% year-over-year increase in electric vehicle sales in the US during the first half of 2024, while Tesla's sales declined by 9.6% over the same period, InsideEVs reported.
Related: Analyst revisits Tesla stock price target with eye on key value driver
The company also noted short-term cost pressures due to tariffs. “We are still ramping Cybertruck and Model 3 and are also getting impacted by varying amounts of tariffs on both raw materials and finished goods,” said CFO Vaibhav Taneja, “Unfortunately, it may have an impact on the cost in the near term.”
Analyst recommends Tesla stock before robo-taxi event
Piper Sandler analyst Alexander Potter recommends owning Tesla stock before the robo-taxi event on October 10.
The analyst said in a research note that, aside from Tesla's vehicle deliveries and automotive gross margins, investors should also consider the company's increasing profits from large stationary batteries and improvements in its full self-driving software.
More Tesla:
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- Analyst resets Tesla stock price target on full-service driving future
In the second quarter, Tesla’s energy generation and storage segment generated revenue of 3 billion, double the amount from a year ago’s 1.5 billion.
Piper Sandler also says that Tesla Energy's long-term target gross margin should be 20% and maintains an overweight rating on Tesla shares with a price target of $300.
Related: Veteran fund manager sees world of pain coming for stocks
