WEBVTT - Elon Opens a Restaurant, Strikes a Chip Deal, Dreams of Robots 0:00:02.640 --> 0:00:07.160 Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news. 0:00:07.960 --> 0:00:10.600 Let me tell you we have a new star. A 0:00:10.760 --> 0:00:14.760 star is born Eylon pumped up on Mars Jusan Kennemy. 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:18.560 He is the Thomas Edison plus plus plus of our age. 0:00:18.720 --> 0:00:21.120 Probably his whole life is from a position of insecurity. 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:21.880 I feel for the guy. 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:25.320 I would say ninety eight percent really appreciate what he does. 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:28.520 But those two percent that are nasty, they are I'll 0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:30.200 be in full pos. 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:32.400 We are meant for great things in the United States 0:00:32.400 --> 0:00:34.720 of America, and Elon reminds us of that. 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:38.680 I'm very disappointed in Elon. I've helped Elon a lot. 0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:49.840 Welcome to Elon Ink, Bloomberg's weekly podcast about Elon Musk. 0:00:49.960 --> 0:00:54.440 It's Tuesday, July twenty ninth. I'm Max Chafkin. David Papadopolis 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:57.279 will be back next week, I've been assured. But we've 0:00:57.320 --> 0:00:59.560 got one more week together, and this week we're gonna 0:00:59.560 --> 0:01:03.160 take a little break from our Jealousy series, where we've 0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:05.680 been interviewing some of the authors of stories that we've 0:01:05.680 --> 0:01:09.199 really admired, because we've had a slew of Elon news 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:12.200 that starts with Tesla. Last week, we had an Earnings call, 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:14.440 and it was let's just say it was a bit 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:17.679 of a downer. Sales are plumbing, and Elon admitted during 0:01:17.720 --> 0:01:20.679 the call that the company is in a really tough spot. 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:22.560 I mean, does that mean like we could have a 0:01:22.600 --> 0:01:25.880 few rough quarters. Yeah, we probably could have a few 0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:30.040 rough quarters. I'm not saying it well, but we could. 0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:34.720 But you can't disregard that musk magic, as we'll talk 0:01:34.720 --> 0:01:37.080 about later in the show. And we discussed the progress 0:01:37.120 --> 0:01:40.240 at Neuralink, a big announcement with the boring company, as 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:43.399 well as a bunch of sort of news around Tesla 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:46.120 that is kind of pointing up. We had the X 0:01:46.400 --> 0:01:49.960 Takeover event. This is essentially a fan event in San Francisco. 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:54.440 We're a much more upbeat version of Elon called in 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:58.280 to talk all about the bright future ahead for Optimus. 0:01:58.640 --> 0:02:03.480 Hypothetically, Tesla was making a billion of these here at scale, 0:02:03.560 --> 0:02:05.880 and at scale of the cost gets lower and lower, 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:10.200 so maybe like on the order thousand dollars, I'm just 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:12.679 guessing he's put trillion in revenue. 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:13.680 Insane. 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:15.919 You know, that's a long way to go between here 0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:19.280 and making a billion provots here. 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:22.600 And so to puzzle through those signals, some positive, some negative. 0:02:22.760 --> 0:02:26.360 I'm sitting here with Bloomberg Law Musk reporter Dana Hall. Dana, 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:26.800 how are you. 0:02:27.120 --> 0:02:28.560 I'm doing great, Max, Great to be. 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:32.160 Here, Danna. You and I were live blogging the Tesla 0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:35.200 earnings as we like to do. Tell our listeners how 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:38.000 it went for Elon on Wednesday. We're recording this on 0:02:38.040 --> 0:02:39.640 Tuesday of the following week. 0:02:39.960 --> 0:02:42.880 Well, you know, it's interesting whenever there's a Tesla earnings call, 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:45.800 so much of it is really about Elon's mood and 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:48.040 what he says. And you and I, because we work 0:02:48.040 --> 0:02:49.800 at Bloomberg and we have a terminal, we can like 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:52.639 watch the stock trading in real time as he's speaking. 0:02:52.680 --> 0:02:55.400 And what I noticed is that, like the earnings were 0:02:55.400 --> 0:02:57.480 coming along, it was like sort of a bad quarter, 0:02:57.560 --> 0:03:00.080 but everyone kind of expected it in terms of the 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:02.720 sales being down and blah blah blah. But like as 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:04.640 soon as Elon was like, could we be in for 0:03:04.639 --> 0:03:07.080 a few bad quarters? Yeah we could that you like 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:12.280 so to solve the SOCCA and like his whole narrative thesis, 0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:14.800 which is that like the future is all about autonomous 0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:19.200 and robotaxis, Like he didn't really say anything new about expansion. 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:22.080 That God investors excited, and then I think more and 0:03:22.080 --> 0:03:24.960 more investors are starting to realize that the core automotive 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:27.600 market is just in a world of trouble because of 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:30.960 major policy shifts in Washington, you know, President Trump and 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:34.440 his administration. Like, there's three things that are really hitting 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:37.120 the company in a bad way. The seventy five hundred 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:41.640 dollars tax credit for electric vehicles, and September thirtieth, the 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:45.440 cafe standards, which are kind of underpin our whole effort 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:49.880 towards electrification, is being completely upended. And then like the 0:03:49.920 --> 0:03:52.680 EPA is going after California's clean Air waiver. So like 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:55.200 all of the things, like the regulatory credits that Tesla 0:03:55.280 --> 0:03:58.480 has relied on for profits for many quarters, or that 0:03:58.520 --> 0:04:01.400 has really underpinned their profits is up in the air 0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:02.480 or going away. 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:07.240 Dana, The thing for me about this call was that 0:04:08.400 --> 0:04:11.760 like Musk in the last few quarters has been talking 0:04:11.800 --> 0:04:15.720 a lot about robotaxis, this time he barely talked about 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:18.720 the actual Austin ROBOTAXI, this thing that we've been talking 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:20.880 about on the show for the last few weeks, and 0:04:21.080 --> 0:04:24.520 mostly used it as a reason to argue that the 0:04:24.920 --> 0:04:28.480 you know ADAS system, the assisted driving technology that you 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:31.480 get when you buy a normal Tesla is good, and 0:04:31.640 --> 0:04:35.360 it felt like almost an acknowledgment that that robotaxi thing 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:37.960 in Austin was kind of what we thought. It was 0:04:38.040 --> 0:04:41.840 like a you know, a demo, a stunt, but like 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:44.200 so far from being a real business. 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:46.640 Yes, the call was a little hard to listen to, 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:49.000 like the sound quality is always so bad. But I 0:04:49.000 --> 0:04:51.640 think one analyst asked them how many miles they've driven 0:04:51.680 --> 0:04:54.320 in Austin, and it was something like seven thousand miles, 0:04:54.320 --> 0:04:56.640 which is not a lot. I mean it means that 0:04:56.720 --> 0:04:58.720 they still have a fleet of what are we thinking, 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:01.599 like twelve to twenty cars. And then the other thing 0:05:02.400 --> 0:05:05.400 is that this weekend we sort of expected that they 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:09.000 would soft launch or launch their their Bay Area service, 0:05:09.640 --> 0:05:12.440 but that hasn't quite happened yet either, like it could 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:14.200 happen any minute, So I don't want to say no. 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:17.320 But like in California, like you need to jump through 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:19.880 a lot more hoops from a regulatory perspective before you 0:05:19.920 --> 0:05:23.200 actually get a permit to do fully autonomous driving, and 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:24.520 Tesla doesn't have that permit. 0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:27.159 Okay, one last thing I want to bring up before 0:05:27.160 --> 0:05:31.159 we move on to the confab this weekend, which is 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:33.400 that you know, we've had a sort of long running 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:36.640 discussion on this show about this so called low cost model. 0:05:36.800 --> 0:05:40.400 Remember this was the model too that many people, especially 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:43.040 many investors, were really excited about, and there was this 0:05:43.160 --> 0:05:45.960 vague thing that happened, was it, Dana, Like about a 0:05:46.040 --> 0:05:50.560 year ago when Reuters reported that Elon had canceled this model, 0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:53.920 Elon said he hadn't. We have believed and this is 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:56.839 partly based on reporting you and Ed Ludlow had done, 0:05:56.920 --> 0:05:58.960 you know back when this happened, that there was not 0:05:59.000 --> 0:06:00.560 really going to be a model too, that there was 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:03.039 going to be a cheaper version of the model. Why 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:07.440 And it's been basically months since then. We finally got confirmation. 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:10.720 On this podcast. We had a analyst say, hey, what's 0:06:10.760 --> 0:06:13.359 the low cost model going to look like? And you 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:15.520 had I think it was a CFO said hey, that's 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:17.760 that's not an appropriate question or started to say that, 0:06:18.000 --> 0:06:24.320 and Elon just jumped in and said, so I guess 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:26.080 that mystery is solved. 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:28.920 Yeah, And like fans are still pushing back, like if 0:06:28.960 --> 0:06:30.839 that's not exactly what he said, you're taking what he 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:34.120 said out of context. But yeah, I mean like This 0:06:34.680 --> 0:06:38.240 is by all accounts, including what Elon said on the call, 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:43.360 like some kind of decontented, cheaper, more affordable model. Why 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:45.360 how do they make it more affordable? I don't know, 0:06:45.480 --> 0:06:47.800 Like do they strip down the interior? Does it not 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:50.479 have a roof? Is the sound system worse? 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:50.640 Like? 0:06:50.680 --> 0:06:51.719 Are the seats crappier? 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:52.720 Don't you know? I don't know. 0:06:53.000 --> 0:06:54.320 There are a lot of ways to make a car 0:06:54.400 --> 0:06:58.440 more affordable. Maybe it's more affordable and better in some ways, 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:00.880 but it's not like a new model. It's not like 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:04.240 Franz has some like brand new spanking design that he's 0:07:04.279 --> 0:07:07.880 been molding in clay in Hawthorne. Like, so I think 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:10.280 that people just really need to disabuse themselves of this 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:12.640 notionha that this is a brand new car. I mean, 0:07:12.680 --> 0:07:15.200 Elon is tired of making cars like the future is 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:18.480 autonomy and optimists. Like in the future, you won't even 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:21.160 buy a car, You'll just like hire one. 0:07:21.400 --> 0:07:24.000 Okay, let's talk about the future. Because we heard the 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:27.520 clip at the top Elon Musk talking about the gazillion 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:30.640 units of Optimists he's expecting to sell. We've seen a 0:07:30.680 --> 0:07:33.920 lot of sort of crazy predictions around this stuff floating around, 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:37.440 but Danna talk about this event that happened over the weekend, 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:38.480 the X Takeover. 0:07:39.080 --> 0:07:40.920 Yeah, so this is an event that's put on every 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:43.840 year by the Tesla Owner's Club of Silicon Valley. This 0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:46.360 year it was in San Mateo, which is in Silicon Valley, 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:48.160 so it was easy for me to get to. It 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:50.080 was on a Saturday, and I went and it was 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:53.680 like a lovely event, and it was really a reminder 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:56.360 that for all that we've written and talked about how 0:07:56.400 --> 0:07:59.960 there's this incredible consumer backlash against Musk and people can 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:02.960 Alifornia now hate him and all the bumper stickers, like, 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:07.160 this company still has throngs of adoring fans and they 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:10.280 go to every event. And so like I'm walking around, 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:12.880 there's all these cyber trucks. People are wearing T shirts 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:15.240 that say don't bet against Elon, and they're wearing T 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:18.200 shirts from like previous product launches. And it was almost 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:21.160 like a reunion because a lot of the Tesla influencers 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:21.520 were there. 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:24.000 Yeah, Boomer Mama was there, friend of the show. 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:26.480 Boomer Mama was there. People were standing in line to 0:08:26.480 --> 0:08:28.400 get like selfies with her, like she was you know, 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:30.480 I could barely talk to her because she was getting 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:32.920 thronged by all these people thanking her for her work. 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:35.520 And then there were a lot of panel discussions and 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:38.080 you know the reason why I went was because Larar's Maravi, 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:42.120 who is Tesla's VP of vehicle Engineering, was speaking and 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:45.200 he doesn't speak publicly very often. And you know, it 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:47.480 was like a day long event. There were things for 0:08:47.520 --> 0:08:49.840 the kids to do. It was like a very positive, 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:52.360 very pro Elon Protesla event. 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:54.280 And then of course what did the kids do? 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:57.199 Oh well, here I'll show you. I've got a little thing. 0:08:57.440 --> 0:08:59.760 There was a three D printed cyber truck that you 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:02.800 could cool said. They were giving out cyber trucks and 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:05.520 crayons and a lot of kids were coloring them. There 0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:08.120 was like face painting. There was there was a balloon guy. 0:09:08.720 --> 0:09:10.120 You know a lot of people were there with their 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:13.040 families and employees were there with their families, and you know, 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:14.800 you could like walk around. There were a lot of 0:09:14.840 --> 0:09:19.720 booths from like aftermarket guys selling accessories to your vehicle. 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:22.600 Got it? Got it? So? And what was the mood? 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:25.880 I mean, like, where are among the sort of Tesla 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:29.840 Elon musk faithful, What are they most excited about? 0:09:30.200 --> 0:09:32.839 I think they're all in on the Robotaxi and Optimists. 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:36.360 And there was a forthcoming cybercab, which is the car 0:09:36.440 --> 0:09:39.520 that has no steering wheel on display. 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:42.000 Right, this was that kind of gold car that he 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:44.520 unveiled Elon unveiled on a sound stage at the end 0:09:44.559 --> 0:09:45.120 of last year. 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:48.800 Yes, surrounded by ropes, so I like couldn't sit in it. 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:52.079 But like the cyber cab was there, surrounded by velvet ropes, 0:09:52.120 --> 0:09:54.600 and like Optimists was there, and like there was a 0:09:54.600 --> 0:09:58.000 throng of people like taking pictures of both. And what's 0:09:58.040 --> 0:10:00.679 super interesting about you know, all all these people is 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:03.400 that like some of them owned a Tesla car and 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:05.640 then they became investors in the company. Some of them 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:07.800 were investors in the company and then they bought their 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:10.280 car and like Tesla Boom or Mama, I mean, I 0:10:10.320 --> 0:10:12.959 don't think she was. She didn't become an investor till 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:15.439 like March of twenty twenty. So some of them are 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:18.240 like long time. Some of them got involved in the 0:10:18.280 --> 0:10:21.320 company around the pandemic, but they are all in and 0:10:21.360 --> 0:10:23.559 a lot of them they have like their life savings 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:24.200 in this company. 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:27.000 What you just said. It's so interesting though, because this 0:10:27.080 --> 0:10:29.920 is as you said earlier this the heritage of this 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:32.280 event is a Tesla Owners Club event. It is not 0:10:32.400 --> 0:10:35.960 a Elon Musk memestock trader event. And yet it really 0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:40.320 sounds like, even more than owning the cars, owning the 0:10:40.360 --> 0:10:42.559 stock is the thing that unifies this group. 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:44.960 I think it's both. It's just a question of like 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:47.080 which one came first, did you buy the car first 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:50.080 or the stock first? But most people are in both. 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:52.560 And it's a community. I mean, it's a real community, 0:10:52.600 --> 0:10:54.959 and you know, we can laugh about it, but it 0:10:55.040 --> 0:10:56.880 is a real community. And that you get the sense 0:10:56.880 --> 0:10:59.160 that these are people who maybe met online and now 0:10:59.200 --> 0:11:01.800 have deep friendship. Maybe they saw each other at a 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:04.720 product launch, They go on road trips, people meet each 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:07.880 other at superchargers, and you know, like people were talking 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:09.920 about like let's go on a road trip to see 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:12.080 the new Tesla diner, you know, like that kind of thing. 0:11:12.400 --> 0:11:14.959 All right, you've brought up the Tesla diner. Yeah, And 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:17.640 we got to jump to that because amid all this 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:21.720 kind of somewhat dire earnings news, the you know, car 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:25.640 sales declining. The stock dropped the following day, although it's 0:11:26.240 --> 0:11:28.800 regained some of that ground. You know, Elon Musk did 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:33.440 something spectacular. He unveiled a new line of business, the 0:11:33.480 --> 0:11:37.040 Tesla Diner. It opened in Hollywood, Dana. There was a 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:41.040 lot of excitement among the influencer crowd over this. Yeah. 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:42.920 No, to be clear, I have not been there, but 0:11:42.960 --> 0:11:45.760 I actually think it's a brilliant idea because I drove 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:48.520 by it when it was under construction and it's in 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:52.640 this kind of older part of Hollywood en Route sixty six. 0:11:52.679 --> 0:11:55.640 It was like this empty lot. They built this diner. 0:11:55.880 --> 0:11:58.400 It has like two stories. You can you can sit, 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:00.319 you can order food, but you can also sit in 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:02.319 your car and watch a movie. It's got like eighty 0:12:02.400 --> 0:12:06.040 supercharger stations that are like version four of the superchargers. 0:12:06.440 --> 0:12:09.320 It's a mob scene. Like people are super into it. 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:11.880 It's gonna be a tourist attraction. It's a great way 0:12:11.920 --> 0:12:15.240 to like market the company. Tesla doesn't just sell you 0:12:15.320 --> 0:12:18.160 the cars, they sell you the whole fueling experience. And 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:21.160 like Root sixty six, Like really is this like iconic 0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:24.840 road trip you know thing? And like the fact that 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:27.920 if you drive across the country you end at Root 0:12:28.000 --> 0:12:30.160 sixty six at this Tesla Diner. I think it's gonna 0:12:30.200 --> 0:12:33.120 usher in like a whole new wave of people, and 0:12:33.200 --> 0:12:35.760 it's been very crowded. There's like lines around the block 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:36.800 of people to get into it. 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:39.960 Yeah, I mean I was watching or I saw a 0:12:40.000 --> 0:12:45.040 clip of a KTLA anchor kind of making fun of 0:12:45.040 --> 0:12:47.800 the food. You know, there have been some negative reviews. 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:48.959 Let's let's give a quick lesson. 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:52.480 I went inside with the full intension of ordering even 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:57.240 these tacos, but it didn't look very advercharging. Okay, and 0:12:57.280 --> 0:12:59.520 if I'm gonna have like a good breakfast, I wanted 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:04.679 a good Chris This is have you guys, unbiased, honest. 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:06.400 Brito. 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:11.840 So that's how KTLA. You know, a network morning show 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:15.280 was covering it. Dan, I watched that and I thought, ooh, 0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:18.600 this really shows you what the backlash has done, because 0:13:18.640 --> 0:13:21.840 I don't think TV networks would have covered it this 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:25.280 way five years ago. Right Like, like you said, the 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:28.200 design is gorgeous. It's it is. It is really cool 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:30.120 looking when you when you see the shots of it, 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:32.840 and yet you know they're kind of making fun of 0:13:32.840 --> 0:13:36.240 the food, like you do wonder if maybe they're you know, 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:38.319 just a few years late launching this thing. 0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:41.040 Yeah, it'll be and it'll be interesting to see, like 0:13:41.080 --> 0:13:44.319 once the initial hype about it dies down, if it 0:13:44.400 --> 0:13:47.679 remains this like packed tourist attraction or not. I mean 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:49.840 the protesters are out there in front, you know, with 0:13:49.880 --> 0:13:53.360 an inflatable Elon doing the awkward gesture, so I mean, 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:55.480 like it's definitely gonna be like a magnet. But I 0:13:55.480 --> 0:13:57.920 think the other reason why people go is because they 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:00.920 think that they might run into executives there, Like Fan Hoolshausen, 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:04.320 the Tesla's chief designer, He's been there. Lara's mentioned that 0:14:04.360 --> 0:14:06.040 he was there the other night. So like if you 0:14:06.160 --> 0:14:09.200 leave in La, or you're visiting La and you want 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:12.360 to like hobnob with executives and engineers, like the diner 0:14:12.600 --> 0:14:14.679 is like kind of a good spot to try to go, 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:16.480 at least in these early days. And so that's I 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:18.600 think another reason why people are stopping by. 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:21.400 It would be so amazing if Elon just takes all 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:23.920 of his meals at the Tesla Diner. He's only eating 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:28.480 the tallow fried French fries and the fried chicken and 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:31.840 waffle or whatever. I have to say my reaction. A 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:35.080 lot of people have talked about the prices on this menu, right, 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:38.960 like it's kind of expensive the hot dog costs thirteen dollars. 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:41.120 That's a lot for a hot dog, I guess, although 0:14:41.200 --> 0:14:43.320 is it a lot for a hot dog in Los Angeles? Like, 0:14:43.440 --> 0:14:47.040 I'm not really sure, but I my beef was like, 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:50.040 this is not a diner. Diners have table service. This 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:53.280 is a fast food restaurant with very expensive food. 0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:57.160 Right, Like there's no waiters or waitresses right in my mind, 0:14:57.200 --> 0:14:59.160 like a diner, I thought. I thought it was gonna 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:01.080 be more like you're sitting in your car watching a movie, 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:03.440 and like the diner brings the food to you while 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:04.120 you're in your car. 0:15:04.360 --> 0:15:06.280 I think there is some of that that's an option, 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:08.200 or you can walk in in order at the counter 0:15:08.280 --> 0:15:10.080 and get it on a tray. I have to say 0:15:10.080 --> 0:15:13.560 that the Hamburger boxes look like little cyber trucks. Apparently 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:16.200 that's cute. That goes along with a theme of the show. 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:19.880 And Optimist is serving popcorn or something. 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:22.400 Not well, though, did you watch the video of Optimists 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:26.080 serving the popcorn spilling? There's a lot of spillage I 0:15:26.120 --> 0:15:28.640 saw though. You got to say, hey, look, Elon has 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:31.080 been trying to find things for Optimists to do, and 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:34.120 here here they have one. This this seemed good. Last 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:36.440 thing I want to hit and we'll move on. Bloomberg 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:40.560 reported initially that Samsung has a almost seventeen billion dollar 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:44.040 deal with Tesla to manufactured chips in its new factory 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:47.560 in Texas. Elon confirmed the report. How big a deal 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:48.880 do we think that? I mean, this is obviously a 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:51.400 big deal for Samsung. Is does this matter that much 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:52.840 for Tesla? 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:53.200 Yeah? 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:56.000 I think so. And Elon posted something about how he 0:15:56.080 --> 0:15:59.000 was going to be personally walking the line and like 0:15:59.480 --> 0:16:02.080 making shit that quality was up to snuff, and they 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:04.600 were gonna be very involved. Like they really pitched it 0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:07.320 as like a partnership. And I think it just means that, 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:09.240 like chips are a big part of the future, both 0:16:09.240 --> 0:16:12.880 for autonomy and the robotaxi and for optimists, and like 0:16:13.000 --> 0:16:16.000 Elon isn't just it's not like they're just buying off 0:16:16.040 --> 0:16:18.440 the shelf chips, like Elon wants to sounds like he 0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:21.400 wants to sort of co design these and be very involved. 0:16:21.440 --> 0:16:24.240 And yeah, they're gonna need compute to do everything that 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:24.840 they want to do. 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:27.640 Yeah, he's gonna be He's gonna be walking the line, 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:30.520 probably sleeping on the line, if history is any guide, 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:33.760 And There's of course also a political element here because 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:36.200 these would be made in the US chips. That, of 0:16:36.200 --> 0:16:39.800 course is probably good for Trump and his efforts to 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:42.640 onshore you know, manufacturing. 0:16:42.040 --> 0:16:43.280 Made in Texas chips. 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:46.520 Right, So maybe you know where I'm on. As you know, Dan, 0:16:46.560 --> 0:16:48.400 I'm on the lookout for any sign of the moot, 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:51.560 and I feel like this is the tiniest little flicker 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:54.840 of a spark. Although there have been some Epstein tweets, 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:57.880 Elon has not stopped tweeting about Epstein. So so I 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:05.320 don't know, you give and you take. I suppose. All right, 0:17:05.359 --> 0:17:09.600 let's move on beyond Tesla to Neuralink. This is the 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:15.480 brain implant company. It's been really mysterious, although tons of 0:17:15.520 --> 0:17:17.840 Promise have talked about this company a bunch of times 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:21.800 on the podcast and their early patients that they've put 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:26.360 implants into. July twenty first announced, we got announcement from 0:17:26.400 --> 0:17:29.320 Neuralink that had done two more surgeries. These are patients 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:31.920 eight and nine, So starting to get up there. And 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:36.400 then probably even more significant thing is that Bloomberg reporter 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:40.080 Ike Sweatlets, who joining us now, broke a story with 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:43.439 a bunch of detail about the business and about where 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:46.399 Neuralink thinks it's going. He's here joining us, Ike, how 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:47.560 are you good? 0:17:47.600 --> 0:17:47.840 Good? 0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:48.680 Thanks for having me. 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:52.600 So I this company has been kind of a mystery, 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:55.320 at least to me, maybe not to you, beyond the 0:17:55.400 --> 0:17:59.920 fact that they were doing some really cool experiments. These 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:02.320 trials that I think we're just are technically just to 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:05.320 show safety, although based on like the social media clips, 0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:08.960 you're seeing some impressive stuff. Patients who were not able 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:11.920 to use their hands able to essentially play video games 0:18:12.119 --> 0:18:15.159 by controlling a cursor with their brains. You report a 0:18:15.200 --> 0:18:18.280 bunch of business plans. The idea, I guess is twenty 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:23.040 thousand implants by twenty thirty one, a billion dollars in 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:26.200 annual revenue. These are our plans, and I think we're 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:29.440 part of an investor presentation. How are they going to 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:31.639 get to that place? On its face, it seems like 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:34.560 one of those crazy Elon Musk predictions. That's a little 0:18:34.560 --> 0:18:35.480 bit hard to evaluate. 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:39.399 Yeah, so they sort of have a ramp up plan 0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:43.280 that they were presenting here right now. You know, they 0:18:43.400 --> 0:18:46.880 just have announced nine patients who've gotten these devices. These 0:18:46.920 --> 0:18:50.840 are not like FDA approved for general commercial use, so 0:18:50.880 --> 0:18:53.560 these are all in clinical research trials right now. 0:18:53.720 --> 0:18:56.159 These are safety trials, I believe, so not even designed 0:18:56.200 --> 0:18:59.440 to show effectiveness, just that it's safe to do them, 0:18:59.480 --> 0:19:00.720 to have them in somebody's head. 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:05.439 And they're hoping to get regulatory approval for sort of 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:08.880 the first version of that device by twenty twenty nine, 0:19:09.280 --> 0:19:12.760 and then ramp it up to two thousand, you know, 0:19:12.760 --> 0:19:14.880 two thousand people a year, two thousand sergers a year, 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:18.240 then ten thousand a year by twenty thirty and then 0:19:18.359 --> 0:19:20.480 and then twenty thousand year by twenty thirty one. So 0:19:20.600 --> 0:19:22.960 those numbers too, that's not the total number of patients, 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:26.000 that's like how many they plan each year, So like 0:19:26.040 --> 0:19:28.200 several tens of thousands of people they hope will have 0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:30.760 these devices by twenty thirty one. 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:32.000