Electric car forward: Musk promises robotaxi offensive after a decline in profits

The Tesla business shrinks – but company boss Elon Musk promises the big liberation with robotaxis. At the latest at the latest next year, self-driving cars would improve the Tesla balance, the tech billionaire announced according to the presentation of quarterly figures. Until then, there could be some “hard quarters”, he admitted.

Finally, falling deliveries of the Tesla electric cars ensured a decline in sales and profits in the second quarter of a year in a row. The electric car manufacturer earned $ 1.17 billion (just under one billion euros) in the past quarter, 16 percent less than a year earlier. Sales fell by twelve percent to around $ 22.5 billion. Tesla once again missed the expectations of the analysts.

Musk, who often showered investors with large -scale -gauge visions after weaker quarters, describes the role of self -driving cars for the future of Tesla. The group had only launched its first Robotaxi service in the city center of Austin from a few weeks – with a “handful of” cars, handpicked by Tesla and pick -up in the passenger seat.

Nevertheless, Musk now came a great promise: he thinks that Tesla can probably offer autonomous trips for half of the US population at the end of the year, he said. Then, however, the restriction came: “Provided the approval of the authorities.” This could not be built on the schedule, judged the long -time industry analyst Gene Munster. In the United States, permits for autonomous driving must be requested in individual states.

Rich cameras as the eyes of the AI?

Teslas Robotaxis has so far covered over 7,000 miles (11,265 km) in Austin. The Google sister company Waymo, whose driverless cars make more than 250,000 trips a week with paying passengers, recently cracked the 100 million miles. Musk still claims that Tesla will quickly get number one when driving autonomous.

He relies on a cost advantage: While Waymo and other developers of self-driving cars for safety rely on expensive laser radars, he only wants to get by with cameras. According to Musk, current Tesla vehicles already have all the necessary technology on board to be autonomous. Vehicles of the compact SUV Model Y are on the road as robotaxis in Austin.

Musk’s plan meets skepticism

In the coming year, Tesla owners could also send their cars to the streets in some US cities as robotaxis to earn money. And once the latest versions of Tesla’s “Autopilot” software are also approved in Europe, the recently weakening sales are also putting on there again, said Musk.

However, experts and rivals have concerns about Tesla’s approach. The laser radars – also known as Lidar – tap the surroundings of the vehicles and can therefore recognize objects and people even in difficult lighting conditions. On the other hand, there are doubts that cameras can correctly identify obstacles in all situations. The US transport authority NHTSA has been investigating accidents with Tesla’s previous “autopilot” versions for years that still act as an assistance system with human supervision.

Tesla sales on a downfield

Tesla deliveries decreased by 13.5 percent to 384,122 vehicles in the past quarter. So the new variant of the previous bestseller Model Y has not yet been able to boost sales. It has been delivered to customers since March.

In addition to the controversy around Musk’s political activities, the transition phase in the Model Y was a reason for the drop in sales of 13 percent in the first quarter.

But Tesla also troubles increased competition from other manufacturers – Chinese brands are particularly strong outside the US home market. In Europe, where Tesla has a factory in Grünheide near Berlin, there have been bitter sales declines for months.

US subsidies run out

Teslas revenues from the car business fell by 16 percent to $ 16.66 billion in the past quarter.

At the same time, there could be short-term tailwind through the policy of US President Donald Trump in the coming months: at the end of September, the electric car sub-stocks of $ 7,500 will expire in the United States. This could cause some interested parties to strike quickly.

How much Tesla can benefit from it is unclear: CFO Vaibhav Taneja admitted that the group may not be able to produce enough cars to meet demand by the end of September. After that, Tesla wants to launch a cheaper model. Musk now confirmed that it would look just like the Model Y. For the lower price, however, discounts on the equipment can be expected. Munster immediately warned that the sales of the more lucrative model Y could suffer.

The German car expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer also pointed out that Tesla has overall overcapacity: While the group can build 2.35 million cars annually, only 1.6 million should be sold this year.

In a first reaction to the quarterly figures, the stock initially increased slightly. But when Musk spoke to analysts in the conference conference, she went on a descent and completed the post -exchangeable trade with a minus of 4.59 percent.