The Surprisingly Grim Warning Elon Musk Gave at an Event Meant to Boost Tesla

Tesla's first-ever "Investor Day," hosted by CEO Elon Musk and his leadership team at the carmaker's Gigafactory in Texas on Wednesday, didn't quite end up being the sweeping, transformative moment that Tesla fans and funders had anticipated. Not for lack of promise--the event was chock-full of ambition, like a new "Master Plan" to have Tesla lead the clean-energy transition by expanding its green-tech manufacturing into products like heat pumps and batteries for energy storage. Also teased: a Gigafactory buildout in Mexico, an improved Supercharger, and two potential new vehicle models. But it was apparently a letdown: Musk demurred when asked for hard details on new Tesla products, and the company's stock--still the primary driver of the CEO's wealth--fell by about 7 percent following the event. To judge by the internet's reception, the most notable moment happened not during the core presentation, but during a Q&A at the very end, when an audience asked Musk about the artificially intelligent elephant in the room: "I'm curious for your thoughts on how generative A.I. and these rapid breakthroughs in A.I. in the last months could help you make cars less hard to make." Musk's closing response made for the most sober, halting portion of the entire four-hour event.