Musk says he’s not stepping down as Tesla CEO, tells shareholders the company will advertise


PTI, May 17, 2023, 9:20 AM IST

Elon Musk on Tuesday dismissed speculation that he might step down as Tesla’s CEO and told the company’s annual shareholders meeting that the the electric car and solar panel company would start doing some advertising.

“Say it ain’t so,” one shareholder asked Musk about stepping down as Tesla’s leader. “It ain’t so,” he replied without further discussion.

When another shareholder suggested that Tesla try advertising, Musk said he is open to it.

“This has some merit,” he said to the shareholder at the meeting at Tesla’s factory site near Austin in Texas. “We’ll try a little advertising and see how it goes.” Tesla famously has avoided paying for advertising like its competitors, relying a lot on Musk’s ability to generate free publicity — he has 140 million followers on Twitter, the social media company bought for USD 44 billion last fall.

Musk told shareholders that the company’s “Full Self-Driving” software is getting close to where it’s safer than human driving. He previously has said the system should be ready this year, a pledge he has made for several years.

Tesla says on its website that the cars can’t drive themselves and humans must be ready to intervene at all times. The company also has been forced by US safety regulators to recall the software because it didn’t obey traffic laws in some cases. The problems noted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are to be fixed with an online software update.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Musk cautioned that the next 12 months could be challenging for the Austin-based company, largely because rising interest rates have increased the cost of buying a car.

“Tesla is not immune to the global economic environment,” he said, predicting that the company will get through the period and do well, even when a lot of companies will go bankrupt.

Later on CNBC he talked about affordability of Tesla cars. “If the car payments or your home payments go up you have less money for other things,” he said.

He told the gathering that sometimes the pain of working has been “quite excruciating”.

He called his time as CEO of Twitter a “short term distraction” and said the company needed open heart surgery to ensure its survival.

It’s now in a stable place, and he’s happy to have Linda Yaccarino, whom he hired away from NBCUniversal, to run Twitter. Musk said the amount of time he’ll devote to Twitter will be “relatively small” compared with the last six months since he bought the social media platform.

Before Musk’s talk, shareholders voted to place Tesla co-founder and former chief technology officer JB Straubel on the company’s board for the next three years. Straubel left Tesla in 2019 to start a battery materials recycling company.

Shareholders also re-elected Musk and Chairwoman Robyn Denholm to the board.

Udayavani is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel and stay updated with the latest news.

Top News

Balasore tragedy result of composite negligence of railway officials: Orissa High Court

Actress Kasthuri stokes controversy by her remarks on Telugu-speaking people in TN

Three convicted for 2016 Kollam collectorate blast case

Expect Canadian government to ensure justice, uphold rule of law: PM Modi

Lone tusker spotted on NH-166 near Karkala, disrupts traffic

Lokayukta police summon Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah for questioning in MUDA case on Wednesday

Not ‘kaun banega mukhyamantri’ contest; MVA to name CM pick after polls: Jairam Ramesh

Related Articles More

Expect Canadian government to ensure justice, uphold rule of law: PM Modi

Khalistanis clash with people at Hindu temple in Canada, Trudeau says unacceptable

Trump says he would not mind somebody ‘shooting’ at him through fake news

US Elections: New Iowa poll shows Kamala Harris leading in presidential race

India-US partnership most important globally for future: Democratic leader Makhija

MUST WATCH

Gho Pooja in Deepavali Festival

Melukote Deepavali

Ganapathi Co-operative Society Ltd

Udayavani Chinnara Banna 2024

Annapoorna Aahar | Food Places In Mysore


Latest Additions

Balasore tragedy result of composite negligence of railway officials: Orissa High Court

Actress Kasthuri stokes controversy by her remarks on Telugu-speaking people in TN

Three convicted for 2016 Kollam collectorate blast case

Expect Canadian government to ensure justice, uphold rule of law: PM Modi

Group clash in Indore after argument over bursting firecrackers: NSA slapped against 2 accused

Thanks for visiting Udayavani

You seem to have an Ad Blocker on.
To continue reading, please turn it off or whitelist Udayavani.