Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk on Sunday denied rumors of hiring Uber Technologies co-founder Travis Kalanick to advise or head the company's robotaxi division.
What Happened: "False," Musk said about the rumors on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
False
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 7, 2024
"All that matters is improving Tesla self-driving AI such that miles between interventions is >> human," Musk said in another post about having pulled Kalanick into the Tesla universe.
All that matters is improving Tesla self-driving AI such that miles between interventions is >> human
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 7, 2024
The rumors of Kalanick joining Tesla kicked off after Musk started following the Uber co-founder on X last week despite the latter not posting anything since 2019. Some speculated that Kalanick might be roped into Tesla to spearhead its robotaxi division as the company gears to unveil its robotaxi product on Aug. 8.
Kalanick left his role as Uber CEO in 2017 and left its Board of Directors in 2019. The former Uber CEO is now CEO of City Storage Systems and runs the 10100 Fund.
Why It Matters: During Tesla's annual shareholder meeting in June, Musk said that Tesla's robotaxi fleet will operate like a combination of Airbnb and Uber with Tesla owning a part of the fleet and Tesla owners being able to let their private vehicles join and exit the fleet at will.
The robotaxi unveil is part of Musk's efforts to turn Tesla from an automaker to an AI, robotics, and sustainable energy company and boost its value.
"While autonomous vehicle is a $5-$7 trillion market cap situation, Optimus is a $25 trillion market cap situation," Musk said last month.
He also said in April that dedicating to autonomous driving is a "blindly obvious move" for Tesla.
"Even if I got kidnapped by aliens tomorrow, Tesla will solve autonomy, maybe a little slower, but it would solve autonomy for vehicles at least," Musk said at the company's first-quarter earnings call. "If somebody doesn't believe Tesla is going to solve autonomy, I think they should not be an investor in the company."
特斯拉公司（納斯達克股票代碼：TSLA）首席執行官埃隆·馬斯克週日否認了有關聘請優步科技聯合創始人特拉維斯·卡蘭尼克爲該公司機器人出租車部門提供建議或領導的傳聞。
發生了什麼：“錯誤，” 馬斯克在談到社交媒體平台X（前身爲Twitter）上的傳聞時說。
假的
— 埃隆·馬斯克 (@elonmusk) 2024 年 7 月 7 日
馬斯克在另一篇關於將卡蘭尼克帶入特斯拉世界的文章中說：“重要的是改進特斯拉的自動駕駛人工智能，使干預措施之間的距離達到>>人爲的。”
重要的是改進特斯拉的自動駕駛人工智能，使干預措施之間的距離是 >> 人爲的
— 埃隆·馬斯克 (@elonmusk) 2024 年 7 月 7 日
卡蘭尼克加入特斯拉的傳聞是在馬斯克上週開始在X上關注優步聯合創始人之後開始的，儘管後者自2019年以來沒有發佈任何內容。有人推測，卡蘭尼克可能會被邀請加入特斯拉領導其機器人出租車部門，因爲該公司正準備在8月8日推出其機器人出租車產品。
卡蘭尼克於 2017 年辭去優步首席執行官一職，並於 2019 年離開董事會。這位前優步首席執行官現在是城市存儲系統的首席執行官，負責管理10100基金。
爲何重要：在6月的特斯拉年度股東大會上，馬斯克表示，特斯拉的機器人出租車車隊將像愛彼迎和優步的組合一樣運營，特斯拉擁有一部分車隊，特斯拉車主可以讓他們的私家車隨意加入和退出車隊。
robotaxi的推出是馬斯克將特斯拉從汽車製造商轉變爲人工智能、機器人和可持續能源公司並提高其價值的努力的一部分。
馬斯克上個月表示：“雖然自動駕駛汽車的市值爲5-7萬億美元，但擎天柱的市值爲25萬億美元。”
他還在4月表示，致力於自動駕駛對特斯拉來說是一個 “顯而易見的舉動”。
馬斯克在公司第一季度業績電話會議上說：“即使我明天被外星人綁架，特斯拉也會解決自動駕駛問題，可能要慢一點，但至少可以解決車輛的自動駕駛問題。”“如果有人不相信特斯拉會解決自主權問題，我認爲他們不應該成爲該公司的投資者。”
