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(This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home4/scienrds/scienceandnerds/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114Source:https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2023\/05\/16\/tesla-shareholders-meeting-no-succession-plan-a-co-founder-returns-and-two-evs-teased\/<\/a><\/br> Tesla held its annual shareholder meeting<\/a> in Austin on Tuesday, an event that Tesla has now taken to calling its Cyber Roundup.<\/p>\n There were five proposals on the agenda, including one that pushed Tesla\u2019s board to come up with a public succession plan for CEO Elon Musk and other \u201ckey persons\u201d whose behavior and loss could create a risk for the company and shareholders.<\/p>\n While Tesla will publish the official vote tallies later in the week, the board recommended shareholders vote against the key person risk proposal, so it likely won\u2019t pass.<\/p>\n \u201cAt a time when Tesla\u2019s technological leadership should be on display, the investment community largely sees us as adrift, with management focused on all matters not-Tesla, watching as Tesla\u2019s brand favorability dropped by 15 points last year, something that costs us margins,\u201d said Karen Robertsdottir, a shareholder in Reykjavik, Iceland, during the event.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen people look at this company\u2026they see the company as a synonym for its CEO, and the discussion turns to everything except for where it should be focused.\u201d<\/p>\n Without explicitly saying it, Robertsdottir nodded to concerns many investors have had<\/a> with Musk\u2019s controversial online presence, as well as his potential distraction away from Tesla after purchasing and taking over the social media platform Twitter<\/a>. Musk has also been criticized for repeatedly selling shares of Tesla<\/a> to fund the Twitter buyout.<\/p>\n When Musk officially bought Twitter in late October, Tesla shares closed at $228.52. On Tuesday, they closed at $166.52.<\/p>\n Musk said Tuesday that he has no intention of stepping down as CEO of Tesla.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Tesla\u2019s going to play an important role in AI and AGI and I think I need to oversee that to make sure it\u2019s good,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n AGI refers to \u201cartificial general intelligence,\u201d the concept that an AI can learn to accomplish any intellectual task that humans or animals can perform.<\/p>\n Shares of Tesla remained somewhat flat after the meeting, rising only about 1% in after-hours trading. That lackluster reaction from investors might be a response to most of the meeting simply rehashing highlights from the last 12 months, rather than sharing much news.<\/p>\n That said, Musk did provide Cybertruck and Roadster updates<\/a>, teased two new electric vehicles<\/a>, said Tesla might shift its advertising strategy<\/a> and shared his macro-economic expectations for the next year. Tesla also announced JB Straubel as a board member<\/a>.<\/p>\n Tesla shareholders elected JB Straubel as an independent board of director. Attendees of the shareholder event cheered the return of the former Tesla CTO and co-founder. Straubel is also the founder and CEO of battery recycling startup Redwood Materials<\/a>.<\/p>\n Shareholders also elected three directors to serve as a three-year term. Tesla nominated Musk, Straubel and current chair Robyn Denholm.<\/p>\n Straubel will take over the spot vacated by Hiromichi Mizuno, the former chief investment officer of Japan\u2019s $1.5 trillion pension fund.<\/p>\n The new board member joined Tesla back in 2004 and was CTO for 14 years. Straubel was behind Tesla\u2019s battery technology and led the construction and concept of Gigafactory Nevada, as well as the production ramp of the Model 3 sedan. Straubel left Tesla in 2019<\/a> and was replaced by Drew Baglino, vice president of technology.<\/p>\n During the event, Musk teased two new electric vehicles<\/a> that will join Tesla\u2019s lineup. The CEO said Tesla was in the process of building one and designing another, but he wasn\u2019t clear if he meant that Tesla was building a prototype or a production vehicle.<\/p>\n Musk said he didn\u2019t want to get into specifics of the new vehicles, which would require their own launch events, but Tesla did display a silhouette of one of the vehicles. Based on the size, it\u2019s possible that Tesla was teasing the $25,000 hatchback that Musk mentioned back in 2020 during the company\u2019s battery day<\/a>.<\/p>\n Both of the new vehicles that are coming to Tesla\u2019s lineup are expected to be affordable vehicles that sell at much higher volumes.<\/p>\n \u201cElon\u2019s guess is that we\u2019ll probably make in excess of 5 million units per year of these two models combined,\u201d said Musk.<\/p>\n Musk said Tesla will deliver its first Cybertrucks later this year and should be able to deliver 250,000 to 500,000 per year once production has started.<\/p>\n Tesla first announced the Cybertruck in 2019, but vehicle production has been repeatedly delayed. On Tuesday, Musk apologized for the delays and promised the product would be better than expectations.<\/p>\n In July last year, the CEO said Tesla aims to begin production for the Cybertruck<\/a> in summer 2023.<\/p>\n Musk noted during the shareholder meeting Tuesday that the Cybertruck will have plenty of attachment points so that third parties can develop attachments to enhance the truck and \u201cturn it into a camper.\u201d Last week, during Tesla\u2019s groundbreaking ceremony of its lithium refinery plant<\/a> in Texas, Musk drove a Cybertruck complete with a roof rack accessory. Musk has also said that the vehicle will be \u201cwaterproof enough to serve briefly as a boat.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe expect to complete the engineering and design of the next-gen Tesla Roadster this year and hopefully start production \u2014 this is not a commitment \u2014 hopefully start production next year,\u201d said Musk.<\/p>\n Musk referred to the Roadster as \u201cthe cherry on the icing on the cake,\u201d meaning he doesn\u2019t expect it to be a huge revenue contributor.<\/p>\n \u201cIt will be a modest contributor to profitability, but it will be sick,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The second-generation Roadster<\/a>, an electric sports car that made a surprise debut in November 2017,<\/a> was meant to come to market in 2020 but has been repeatedly delayed as the high-priced car took a backseat to other Tesla products like the Model 3 and Model Y.<\/p>\n Musk speculated that the next year will be a difficult one for the economy due to a variety of factors. Higher interest rates, he said, will have a big effect on the affordability of cars.<\/p>\n \u201cThe vast majority of people buy cars based on the monthly payment, so it\u2019s like how much is the monthly payment?\u2026Can they afford to pay the payment as the interest rates increase and credit tightens?\u201d<\/p>\n Musk noted that most banks are struggling just to stay alive in the wake of the crisis sparked by the Silicon Valley Bank collapse<\/a>, which means that \u201cincreasing the auto loan portfolio is not the first thing on their minds.\u201d<\/p>\n On a macro global economic level, Musk expects the next 12 months to be difficult for everyone, Tesla included. He expects to see a lot of companies go bankrupt, but said that Tesla is in a good position to weather the storm and \u201cemerge stronger than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt is important to remember that there are good times and there are dark times, but then the good times follow the dark times,\u201d said Musk. \u201cSo my advice would be, don\u2019t look at the markets for the next 12 months. If there\u2019s a dip, buy the dip, and I think you will not be sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n Tesla, a company that has long eschewed conventional advertising, is going to \u201ctry out a little advertising<\/a> and see how it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n Tesla doesn\u2019t pay for traditional advertising like other automakers. And it hasn\u2019t really needed to. The company has become incredibly popular through other methods of marketing, like emails and referral programs<\/a> that incentivize existing owners to attract customers, and, of course, Musk\u2019s many tweets.<\/p>\n Now, Musk seems willing to shift that line of thinking as the company aims to promote new car features and advertise the affordability of its vehicles.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are amazing features and functionality about Teslas that people just don\u2019t know about, and although there\u2019s obviously a lot of people that follow the Tesla account and my account\u2026it is preaching to the choir, and the choir is already convinced.\u201d<\/p>\n We don\u2019t yet know what a Tesla advertising campaign would look like, but already many are speculating that Twitter will be home to Tesla\u2019s first ads.<\/p>\n Nary a Tesla event goes by in which Musk doesn\u2019t wax lyrically about the possibilities of the automaker\u2019s AI \u2014 Musk said Tuesday that it\u2019s \u201cby far the most advanced real-world AI.\u201d<\/p>\n Today, this AI manifests in Tesla\u2019s advanced driver assistance system, confusingly dubbed Full Self-Driving (FSD)<\/a>. The latest version<\/a> of FSD can handle driving tasks both in urban areas and on highways, but it still requires a human to stay alert and take over control of the vehicle as needed. Roughly 400,000 Tesla owners in North America have purchased the $15,000 beta software.<\/p>\n The other way Tesla\u2019s AI will manifest is in the company\u2019s humanoid robot, Optimus. Tesla displayed new videos of Optimus development and testing at the shareholder event.<\/p>\n \u201cAs full self-driving gets closer and closer to generalized real-world AI, that same software is transferrable to a humanoid robot,\u201d said Musk.<\/p>\n \u201cMy prediction is that the majority of Tesla\u2019s long-term value will be Optimus,\u201d the CEO continued, reiterating a point he has made before.<\/p>\n After the shareholder event, Musk joined CNBC\u2019s David Faber for an interview that covered a broad range of topics, from Tesla to Twitter, content moderation to free speech, the ethics of AI and Musk\u2019s early investment in OpenAI<\/a>, the startup behind the wildly popular conversational AI model ChatGPT.<\/p>\n \u201cTesla will have a ChatGPT moment if not this year then no later than next year,\u201d said Musk, referring to the technology\u2019s swift exponential breakthrough. \u201cSuddenly 3 million cars will be able to drive themselves with no one. And then 5 million and then 10 million.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/br><\/br><\/br><\/p>\n
\nTesla shareholders meeting: no succession plan, a co-founder returns and two EVs teased<\/br>
\n2023-05-17 22:30:06<\/br><\/p>\nJB Straubel back at Tesla as a board member<\/h2>\n
Musk teases two new EVs<\/h2>\n
Cybertruck updates<\/h2>\n
Next-gen Tesla Roadster production delayed, again<\/h2>\n
\u2018Don\u2019t look at the markets for the next 12 months\u2019<\/h2>\n
Tesla to try traditional advertising<\/h2>\n
\u2018Tesla will have a ChatGPT moment\u2019<\/h2>\n