The often-hyperbolic CEO of Tesla celebrated his record-setting pay package with a number of bold claims
With shareholders overwhelmingly approving his $1 trillion pay package on Thursday, Elon Musk, the world's richest man, stands to get a whole lot richer. But judging by some of his comments at the annual shareholder's meeting, he could be getting even more hyperbolic.
Musk has a long history of making bold claims, many of which fail to materialize. But on the heels of his salary win, he took to the stage at the event and made several new ones. Here's a roundup of what Musk had to say.
After teasing the idea of a flying car on the Joe Rogan show earlier this month, Musk was asked about it at Thursday's event. While he had talked about a demo this month or next with Rogan, Musk now said it will take place on April 1, 2026. (That date, of course, automatically raises some skepticism, given Musk's love of pranks.) Musk added production of the car would begin roughly within one year of its unveiling.
It's worth noting the FAA is still determining how to integrate air taxis, the current model of flying car, with existing flight patterns (most flights are expected to take place between 2,000 and 3,000 feet above ground level) and requirements for pilots.
While touting Tesla $TSLA's full self-driving (FSD) feature, Musk said the company was "almost comfortable" with letting drivers text and drive while in FSD mode. At present, Tesla requires drivers to keep their eyes on the road while in FSD. Musk said "within a month or two" that will change, letting drivers text or look at their phones.
Regulations in many states and cities are likely to still forbid that however.
Saying Tesla would be "ramping up Optimus production faster than anything’s ever been ramped up before in human history,” Musk has broad ambitions for the humanoid robots. The company will start with the production line creating one million of the devices, then 10 million, but ultimately, he sees Tesla producing as many as one billion a year. Those Optimus robots, he said, could do away with jails ultimately, following criminals around to stop them from committing future crimes.
To achieve some of these goals, Musk said Tesla will need to build a "gigantic" semiconductor fabrication plant. "Even when we extrapolate the best-case scenario for chip production from our suppliers, it’s still not enough," he said. He envisions the Tesla plant having an initial capacity of 100,000 wafers per month, eventually hitting a capacity of one million per month.
Tesla shares were down 3.5% in early trading Friday.
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