| Thanks for reading Hyperdrive, Bloomberg's newsletter on the future of the auto world. Risking Tesla's Position in the UK | A little over a year ago, Elon Musk engaged in a defiant exchange about the pertinence of his popularity to the companies he runs: Andrew Ross Sorkin: There's a difference between saying, I don't care if anyone likes me, or they hate me. But given your power, and given what you have amassed and the importance you have, I would think you want to be trusted… Musk: We can break that down in a few ways. If you want satellites sent to orbit reliably, SpaceX will do 80% of all mass to orbit this year… You could hate my guts. You could not trust me. It is irrelevant. The rocket track record speaks for itself. With respect to Tesla, we make the best cars. Whether you hate me, like me or are indifferent, do you want the best car, or do you not want the best car?
Now, Musk is about to put his you can hate me, but you're still going to buy my cars theory to the test like never before in the UK. Back in November 2023, when Musk made these comments at the New York Times DealBook Summit, he was trying to contain the damage from his endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory on X. "It might be literally the worst and dumbest post that I've ever done," he said at the time.  Musk speaking at the New York Times DealBook Summit in November 2023. Photographer: Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images North America Musk has yet to offer any such introspection about his barrage of posts during the first couple weeks of the new year berating British leaders across the political spectrum over sexual exploitation of children dating back decades. One can absolutely conclude — and Bloomberg's Editorial Board has — that Britain has failed thousands of young girls and that too little has changed. Musk, however, has gone much further, leveling baseless allegations at Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Home Office Minister Jess Phillips and calling for their imprisonment. Although Musk has aimed most of his ire at the Labour party, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage also has been on the receiving end. All of four days passed between when Musk told his followers on X, "Vote Reform. It's the only hope," and when he posted, "The Reform Party needs a new leader. Farage doesn't have what it takes." The sudden rift apparently was spurred by Farage's reluctance to join Musk in calling for the release from prison of Tommy Robinson, a far-right activist who jeopardized the trials of men convicted six years ago of sexual offenses against girls in northern England. This week, YouGov is out with the results of a survey. "Few Britons trust party leaders on the issue," the pollster's head of data journalism wrote. "And they trust Musk least of all." More than 70% of 2,533 respondents to YouGov's survey conducted on Jan. 8 and 9 said they had an unfavorable opinion of Musk. That's up seven percentage points since November, the pollster said. The portion of respondents with a "very" unfavorable view jumped 14 points, to 55%. There was some merit to what Musk said at the DealBook Summit. Last year, Tesla delivered 1.79 million vehicles to customers around the world. While this was down slightly from 2023 — marking the company's first drop in annual car sales in more than a decade — it was a relatively resilient showing. For the first time ever, Tesla delivered more vehicles than storied German brand Audi. But one can only wonder what might have been had Musk stuck to his stated preference to steer clear of politics. If YouGov's survey is any guide, Tesla's sales in its biggest market in Europe may head in the same direction as its biggest market in the US. Its registrations in the state of California fell 13% in the first three quarters of last year.  Photographer: Matthew Porter for Bloomberg Businessweek In mid-December, GM announced it was shutting down its autonomous vehicle subsidiary Cruise. While CEO Mary Barra presented the decision as a strategy shift, it was also a profound admission of failure, Bloomberg Businessweek columnist Max Chafkin writes. For years, Barra and many other executives in the auto and tech industries spun a fantastical vision of the future in which fleets of robotaxis would imminently replace normal cars. Cruise's demise not only offers a cautionary tale for others attempting to sell robotaxis, especially Elon Musk's Tesla and Google's parent Alphabet, Chafkin writes. It also suggests that the wild promises of operators of AI chatbots — and the companies that depend on these chatbots to justify their sky-high valuations — should be met with caution, if not outright skepticism. | 
No comments:
Post a Comment