Tesla offers a glimpse of a future without Elon Musk – The Verge

Elon Musk may seem inseparable from Tesla, but on Wednesday night, the company offered the first real taste of what it might look like without its billionaire CEO.

Tesla held a regularly scheduled conference call to discuss its quarterly financial results, but as hed previously teased Musk did not attend. His absence took whats normally a venue for his rants and ramblings, dismissals of Wall Street, and attacks on the press and turned it into a coherent (if scripted) presentation of the companys recent progress.

There were fewer sideshows and a more measured tone, though the executives who spoke in Musks place still made some contradictions. If Musk were to leave his post atop the company, its likely that Tesla would look and sound a lot like how the company was presented on Wednesday nights call.

Musk has talked about stepping down from Tesla for a few years, especially after the Model 3 and Model Y helped the company find some financial stability. Perhaps most notably, in July, Musk testified in court that he had tried hard not to be the CEO at Tesla, but I had to or it would die.

He wasnt kidding he once said that the company was single-digit weeks away from collapse during the first big push to mass-produce the Model 3. It was around that time in 2018 that he got himself (and Tesla) sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company also started facing some of the most intense waves of scrutiny about its Autopilot software.

Facing all that pressure, an admittedly sleep-deprived Musk often used the quarterly earnings call to blow off steam. In late 2017, he yelled shame at journalists and their editors for writing about the companys layoffs. In early 2018, he cut off Wall Street analysts for asking boring, bonehead questions and started the practice of fielding inquiries from retail shareholders. Three months after that, he apologized to those same analysts. In April 2020, he said that the shelter-in-place orders meant to stop the spread of COVID-19 were fascist.

There was none of that Wednesday night. Taking Musks place was Teslas chief financial officer Zachary Kirkhorn, along with vice presidents Lars Moravy and Drew Baglino. The trio bounded through pre-submitted questions from shareholders as well as live ones from the bankers. When asked about the National Highway Traffic Safety Administrations investigations into Autopilot, they gave diplomatic answers about how they embrace the scrutiny of [Teslas] products, and preached cooperation.

They still massaged some things, though. Tesla is not just cooperating with NHTSA, its partnering with the safety agency on the journey to the transition to a software-oriented vehicle, Kirkhorn said. Tesla is being extremely transparent about the ongoing test of the Full Self-Driving beta software, they claimed, despite making owners sign nondisclosure agreements until very recently.

The vibe certainly changed, but Kirkhorn and crew still obsessed over growth, much like Musk. Kirkhorn recommitted to the companys goal of increasing the number of vehicles it builds each year by 50 percent. The Model Y is poised to be the bestselling vehicle in the world, Moravy said. Musk has imbued Tesla with a ton of momentum, and the executives whove remained with him clearly wont slow that down.

If or when Musk steps down as Teslas CEO, the company will likely resemble the one on Wednesdays call. Whats unknowable is how Tesla would respond to Musks use of Twitter if he occupies a different perch. Right now, when he tweets about making changes to Teslas products, the people who work at the company have a pretty explicit obligation to make those changes happen. If hes in a reduced role, or removed from the company entirely (perhaps to focus more on SpaceXs growing operations in Texas), will Teslas executives give those tweets the same kind of weight?

Perhaps when Musk isnt CEO, his public proclamations will have less of an effect on the companys sky-high stock price. Musk even said at one point that he believed the share price was too high though that was billions of dollars worth of valuation and a stock split ago, so the market has proven its willingness to ignore him before. (For what its worth, Teslas stock price closed higher than ever on Thursday.)

Tesla has now turned a profit in nine straight quarters, and 11 of the last 13. Its still got its fair share of challenges ahead as it continues to build up factories in new places around the globe. But the company appears to be in the kind of shape Musk has said is required before hed consider leaving. Maybe well get a chance to evaluate his influence on Tesla from something other than the CEO role sooner than later.

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Tesla offers a glimpse of a future without Elon Musk - The Verge