Outta here, cars! Tesla has to make room for promises of an automated, robotic future.<\/b>
\nThe various non-truck models of Tesla aren\u2019t known for looking super distinct from one another. If you\u2019re like me, when you see a Tesla on the road you sort of have to squint to tell the Tesla Models S and X from the more common\u2014and cheaper\u2014Models Y and 3. This irksome game may have just gotten easier, because Models S and X are being killed off.
Eagle-eyed Tesla watchers may have noticed that Models S and X looked like they were in trouble last summer when Tesla stopped taking orders in Europe. Then on an earnings call on Wednesday, Musk confirmed our suspicions, announcing the end of production for both product families.
The soon-to-be-discontinued Model S is the oldest model actively produced, having been around since 2012. It was more or less the replacement for the Roadster, the car that you probably just identified as \u201coh look a Tesla\u201d when it was new. The doomed X, a luxury crossover SUV, came along three years later to serve the American taste for cars that are tall. The X is also the one with doors like the Back to the Future car.
The remaining non-Cybertruck models are the Model 3, also known as \u201cthe cheapest one,\u201d and the Model Y, also known as \u201cthe cheaper crossover SUV.\u201d
\u201cWe expect to wind down S and X production next quarter and basically stop production,\u201d said Musk on the Wednesday earnings call, \u201cThat is slightly sad, but it\u2019s time to bring the S and X programs to an end, and it\u2019s part of our overall shift to an autonomous future.\u201d
As my colleague Zac Estrada noted, part of the purpose behind the discontinuations is, ostensibly, Tesla\u2019s plan to build robots. The company needs to free up space in its Fremont, California plant for mass production of Tesla Optimus bots\u2014millions of them.
Telsa has no choice but to take some big swings like this as it attempts to fulfill Elon Musk\u2019s outlandish promises made in recent years, pivoting from being a car company to an automation company. Never mind that automation is more of a vague concept than a product\u2014encompassing software, robotic factories, self-driving equipment, data, and that sort of thing.
Musk is essentially telling investors not to be sentimental about outmoded ideas such as Tesla being a car company. He says his robots are the future of medical care, and that in fact they are going to literally make everyone rich. No seriously, he claims his humanoid robot is going to \u201celiminate poverty and provide universal high income for all.\u201d
So who needs a couple dumb old \u201ccars\u201d that can \u201cmake money for his company\u201d when he\u2019s selling a dream, and he\u2019s not selling it to customers, but to investors. What\u2019s more, Wall Street is, somehow, continuing to gobble that dream right up.<\/p>\n