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\u201cThat\u2019s really the difference between Tesla being worth a lot of money, and being worth basically zero,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Musk sat down for a lengthy three-part interview<\/a> <\/u><\/strong>with three representatives of the Tesla Owners Silicon Valley and confirmed just how valuable he believes the company\u2019s autonomous technology is: about $724 billion, using today\u2019s closing stock price of $699 a share<\/a><\/u><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The company\u2019s CEO has repeatedly set and missed targets for full implementation of FSD, including saying it should be better than human drivers by this fall. To be fair, that\u2019s not the same has having approval from federal safety regulators to begin using it without restriction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While Musk\u2019s thoughts might seem an extreme point of view about the company\u2019s autonomous technology, he doesn\u2019t think it\u2019s just Tesla that faces extreme headwinds among the startup automakers currently rolling into the market like Rivian, Lucid, Fisker, et al.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He believes new auto companies face an enormous task in overcoming the advantages of legacy automakers. Musk points out in the interview Ford, General Motors, Toyota and others can generate revenue not just from vehicle sales, but also the sale of parts to keep those vehicles running.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Automakers make very little or nothing on their new vehicle sales, he said he was told once by an analyst, but that all the profits come from the 80% of their vehicles on the road that are no longer under warranty, needing a variety of high-margin parts to keep those vehicles up and running.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since new EV makers don\u2019t have this built-in stream of revenue, they must charge more for their vehicles. If they want to sell those pricey new vehicles, they need to ensure they offer more than the competition, particularly electrification and autonomy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn the absence of their being a fundamental technology discontinuity in the form of electrification and autonomy, both of them together, I think a new car company cannot succeed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He backtracked a bit allowing it would be \u201cdifficult\u201d to flourish, but ultimately said having those two technologies at the same time and working better than what consumers can get from legacy automakers as well as other new players is the only way to survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe only way for a new car company to succeed is to charge a lot more than competitors,\u201d Musk said. \u201cThe product must be so compelling that people are willing to pay the premium above the incumbent car makers. Without electrification and autonomy this does not succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite Musk\u2019s insistence that Autopilot, the company\u2019s semi-autonomous technology, and FSD are the keys to its future, recent statistics reveal there is a long way to go. A report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released Wednesday<\/a> <\/u><\/strong>revealed that Tesla\u2019s Autopilot technology was involved in 273 of 392 crashes of vehicles using Level 2 technology between July 2021 and last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The news was just another blow to the company and its Autopilot, which is at the heart of multiple safety investigations by federal safety regulators. Perhaps the most notable are the 17 crashes involving Tesla vehicles crashing into parked emergency vehicles while Autopilot was engaged.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNot just Tesla<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Tesla](\"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Tesla-FSD-simulation-1024x575.jpg\")
![\"Tesla](\"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Tesla-Florida-crash-two-Aug-2021-1024x701.jpg\")
Tesla\u2019s tech still not making the grade<\/h2>\n\n\n\n