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How Elon Musk Stopped Loving Cars and Left Tesla in the Lurch
Inside Tesla, Musk’s lieutenants told him the Robotaxi he championed stood to lose money. He ignored them.
Early last year, Elon Musk decided that Tesla wouldn’t be an electric vehicle company anymore. It would keep making cars, but not the new, mass-market model that investors, many Tesla fans and his senior advisers were asking for.
Instead, he would bet the company on artificial intelligence products like the Robotaxi and humanoid robots. He rejected internal studies produced by his lieutenants who questioned the prospects for the Robotaxi and pushed for the new vehicle—a $25,000 crossover SUV for families.