In October final yr, the world’s richest conspiracy theorist, Elon Musk, introduced plans for a robotaxi, the Tesla Cybercab.
Manufacturing would start he stated “in 2026”, earlier than correcting himself to “before 2027”, as a result of “I are typically slightly optimistic with timeframes.”
That statement is an understatement inversely proportional to Musk’s wealth.
So it wasn’t shocking that Musk’s is announcement of the US$30,000 ( A$44.5k) Cybercab – together with a 20-seat autonomous “Robovan” (with no timeframe) was met with loads of deja vu and scepticism.
“I feel very confident predicting autonomous robotaxis for Tesla next year,” Musk stated. That confidence dates from a 2019 quote.
Waymo is already doing it in San Francisco. Musk is coping with US regulatory investigation into the autopilot techniques on 2.4 million vehicles.
To be honest to Musk, who, proper now, might need been on Mars slightly than at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s dwelling, had his predictions on inter-planetary house journey been correct (final yr he modified the 2024-26 timeline to 2028), typically delivers (Hyperloop excluded), simply not within the time frames he predicts.
And whereas he’s ready to chop himself some slack, woe betide others attempting to learn the hen entrails.
9 newspapers know-how editor David Swan turned Summer time seer over the break, penning a 2025 predictions column saying Musk will resign as Tesla boss.
“To be juggling leadership roles at X (formerly Twitter), Tesla, SpaceX, xAI, the Boring Company and Neuralink was already unsustainable. Musk now has wormed his way into Trump’s inner circle, and will jointly lead the president-elect’s DOGE – Department of Government Efficiency – in a bid to slash billions in government expenditure,” NostraSwan wrote for the SMH, alongside predicting the demise of VR and Bitcoin doubling in value to $200k.
“Musk has already discovered himself at loggerheads with MAGA diehards like Steve Bannon over immigration points, and the inauguration remains to be weeks away. He’s additionally been at loggerheads with the justice system, after a US choose blocked Musk’s $US56 billion ($90 billion) pay bundle from Tesla.
“After constant controversies and distractions, it will all come to a head in 2025, and Musk will be forced to hand over the reins at Tesla, a company many mistakenly think he founded.”
It appears even Musk’s outrageous fortune can’t ease his ego’s affected by the slings and arrows of the smallest slight. So the budding bureaucrat turned to his personal city sq., which is dropping hundreds of thousands of customers, utilizing the Donald Trump playbook to bag the media.
The free speech absolutionist* (*absolution is granted provided that your view aligns with Musk’s, in any other case you’re cancelled), who this week fell out with former UK buddy Nigel Farage, retorted on the previous Twitter that “I predict that the Sydney Morning Herald will continue to lose readership in 2025 for relentlessly lying to their audience and boring them to death”.
After all the Muskolytes fell into line behind their hero. Swan took it on the chin, responding “Damn, roasted”.
The story that upset the world’s richest man
Tesla gross sales tank
However Musk in all probability needs to be centered on declining Tesla gross sales, slightly than the augury of an Antipodean journalist.
The EV maker’s Australian deliveries (and sure gross sales) tanked 17% in 2024, the primary calendar yr fall, regardless of value cuts of as much as $9500.
The Electrical Automobile Council reported 2024 deliveries of 38,347 new Teslas, down from 46,120 in 2023.
Musk’s model stays the market chief, accounting for 42% of Australian EV gross sales, however there’s an enormous shift underway, with the expansion in different EV manufacturers up 29% final yr. Total, annual gross sales grew by 4.7%, however have been dragged down by Tesla’s decline.
Globally, a decade of development ended for the automobile maker, with the variety of Teslas delivered falling for the primary time to 1.79 million, down from 1.81m in 2023.
And the jury stays out on the Cybertruck, which seems to be a great distance from the 1 million reservations Musk claimed.
Maybe everybody’s nonetheless ready for the 1000km vary Musk promised in 2015 a Tesla would have “for sure” by 2017. Or possibly the 1,2ookm vary he predicted by 2020.
Whereas SMH noticed its readership decline barely in 2024, stays streaks forward of the competitors with greater than 7 million readers, so regardless of 9’s share value, it would nonetheless be round lengthy after Musk has fallen out with Trump, as many predict.
But when we apply a prediction leeway much like the the one granted to the present Telsa CEO, then Swan’s prognostication on Musk solely has to return true a while earlier than 2035 to be as correct as lots of the statements made by a billionaire who stated final March: “Just to be super clear, I am not donating money to either candidate for US President” earlier than contradicting himself inside months to again Donald Trump to the tune of US$242.6 million.
Generally it’s laborious to know what you’re going to do tomorrow, not to mention by the top of the yr, however with 2025 freshly underway, at the least we will agree we’re optimistic in regards to the future. As John Lennon noticed practically 60 years in the past, tomorrow by no means is aware of.
