Elon Musk: So there you have the sexy presentation.
Mark: You could argue that a lot of Tesla's problems
come from Elon Musk's ambition and his disregard
for social or business norms.
Audience member: I like the shoes!
Musk: Yes.
Mark: So on the one hand, these qualities
have contributed to Tesla being much more successful
than I think a lot of people would've predicted
10 to 15 years ago.
Musk: Hey, everyone!
Mark: But the flip side of that coin is that
Tesla might have a product roadmap that is unsustainable
and that Elon Musk just can't make this transition from
scrappy, ambitious start-up CEO
to a more measured, more disciplined CEO
of a company that, now, its priority is more operations
and competence than selling people on its potential.
A lot's going on with Tesla right now.
There's good, there's bad,
and it can be difficult to make sense of
which is dominant.
Over the past year, Tesla has undergone
three rounds of layoffs.
After this first round of layoffs last June,
Elon Musk said in an email, or
he strongly suggested, that they're making
these cuts now so they'd never have to do it again.
But then in January, they made another round of layoffs,
and then at the end of February and the beginning of March
when they announced
that they were going to close some stores,
they said that would also lead to layoffs.
Tesla and the SEC have been at odds over the past year.
In August of last year, Elon Musk said
he basically had a deal to take Tesla private.
The SEC basically disagreed and sued him.
The two eventually reached a settlement.
Part of that settlement requires Elon Musk
to have all communications that could be relevant
to investors reviewed by someone at Tesla
before he makes them public.
And recently, he tweeted a projection about
Tesla's vehicle production for this year.
Now, he sent out a corrected tweet shortly thereafter,
but the SEC asked the judge to hold Elon Musk
in contempt because they're saying that Elon
did not get preapproval.
So over the past year,
there have been three former Tesla employees
who have filed whistleblowing tips with the SEC,
which basically means these employees are saying that,
"We have seen wrongdoing at the company,
and we want the government to know about it."
But now Tesla has denied all of these things,
and we haven't seen any hard evidence of this,
but this certainly raises questions for the company.
So how is Tesla gonna be looking the rest of 2019?
That is the million dollar question.
On the one hand,
they finally introduced the $35,000 version of Model 3,
which has been one of their primary goals
going back to 2006.
On the other hand,
they're closing a lot of retail stores,
there's questions about where they're going to build
the Model Y and the Semi.
Questions about Elon Musk's behavior.
It's tough to tell.
There's a range of possibilities
for how this year's gonna turn out for Tesla.
Right now, it's difficult to tell
how things are going to shake out.
Worst-case scenario: Model 3 and I guess
overall vehicle demand is not as high as they'd hoped,
Elon Musk's behavior and legal battles with the SEC,
serious consequences,
and his behavior becomes even a bigger distraction
for the company while it deals with softening demands
and inability to hit its financial targets.
Best-case scenario for Tesla:
Model 3 demand stays high or even increases
with the introduction of lower-priced versions,
fully ironed out all the kinks in production,
profitability keeps growing over the course of the year,
Elon Musk's legal battles with the SEC
sort of die down without any major consequences
for him.
You know, he sort of reins in his behavior
and doesn't create any more distractions for Tesla,
and at the end of 2019,
this becomes a pivotal year for Tesla
and a very successful one
both financially and in terms of their public image.