FILE - The logo for the Tesla Supercharger station is seen in Buford, Ga, April 22, 2021. Faced with falling global sales and a tumbling stock price, Tesla has slashed prices again on some of its electric vehicles and its “Full Self Driving” system. Tesla releases first-quarter earnings Tuesday, April 23, 2024. , Tesla has slashed prices again on some of its electric vehicles and its “Full Self Driving” system in an apparent effort to boost the company’s earnings growth.
Now, Musk appears to be betting that the unveiling of a new robotaxi model on Aug. 8 will be the catalyst that his company needs to return to wild annual sales growth. In a note to investors Monday, Bank of America Global Research analyst John Murphy wrote that Tesla’s shares have been under pressure since the start of the year due to weaker EV sales, and production that exceeds demand.
From January through March, Tesla manufactured 433,371 vehicles and delivered 386,810, making over 46,000 more than it sold. This even after it cut prices last year on some of its more expensive models, and key executive Andrew Baglino, senior vice president of powertrain and energy engineering, announced he was leaving after 18 years.
Some experts, though, don’t think any system that relies solely on cameras like Tesla’s can ever reach full autonomy. “There’s no ambient lighting to illuminate that pedestrian,” Anderson said. “So any optical system including cameras or human eyes dependent on other light to reflect off an object will fail at that kind of job.”