For years, even to its most ardent critics, the mission at Tesla seemed pretty clear: advance clean energy through electric vehicles and their related ecosystems, while eventually building up to a day when cars could fully drive themselves. The last part is why the company is valued so highly, more like a tech company than the car companies usually poorly regarded by Wall Street, and investors and longtime fans alike gave CEO Elon Musk's many... idiosyncrasies (let's go with that) a pass for all the value he delivered. But in 2024, the stock price is down, doubts about its ability to deliver on AI are mounting and even Musk seems to have changed his tune on the urgency of confronting climate change.
