WEBVTT - The Cybertruck Is Coming, Whether Tesla Is Ready or Not 0:00:03.960 --> 0:00:06.880 Well, Elon Musk gives now the richest person on the planet. 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:10.000 More than half the satellites in space are owned and 0:00:10.119 --> 0:00:12.080 controlled by one man. 0:00:12.440 --> 0:00:15.160 Starting his own artificial intelligence company. 0:00:15.400 --> 0:00:18.360 Well, he's a legitimate super genius. I mean legitimate. 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:21.200 He says. He's always voted for Democrats, but this year 0:00:21.239 --> 0:00:23.599 it will be different. He'll vote Republican. There is a 0:00:23.640 --> 0:00:26.160 reason the US government is so reliant on him. 0:00:26.400 --> 0:00:29.960 Elon Musk is a scam artist and he's done nothing. 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:33.320 Anything he does is fascinating the people. 0:00:41.960 --> 0:00:44.920 Welcome to Elon Inc. Where we discuss Elon Musk's past 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:48.120 corporate empire, his latest gambits and antics, and how to 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:51.479 make sense of it all. I'm your host, David Popadopolis. 0:00:52.720 --> 0:00:56.720 I really thought we'd talk about Cybertruck this week, and 0:00:56.800 --> 0:01:00.920 we will, I promise. But first, I'm sure you've seen 0:01:00.960 --> 0:01:04.560 the videos and photos. On Monday, Elon Musk put on 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:07.520 body armor to take a tour in Israeli kibbutz that 0:01:07.600 --> 0:01:11.600 was attacked on October seventh. Speaking to Israel Prime Minister 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:15.200 Benjamin and Yahuan x, he offered to help rebuild Gaza. 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:18.959 Those are a crazy couple of sentences. The head of 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:22.200 six cutting Edge Companies took his private jet to the 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:25.559 site of a Hamas massacre just miles from an active 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:29.480 war zone. It raises a lot of questions, what is 0:01:29.600 --> 0:01:34.399 Musk doing? Why? What is he trying to accomplish? To 0:01:34.480 --> 0:01:37.559 discuss his trip to Israel, we've brought in Marissa Newman, 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:42.039 our Israeli tech reporter. Marissa, thanks for making time for us. 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:43.720 We know you've been very, very busy. 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:44.480 Thank you. 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:50.680 And Max Chafkin, senior reporter at Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Hey, then 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:53.680 we'll dig into all things cyber truck with longtime Tesla 0:01:53.720 --> 0:02:00.920 reporter Dana Hull. Okay, Israel, Marissa, what was Elon mush there? 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:04.480 So officially he was here for a solidarity visit during 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:06.920 the war, he tore the key boots in the south 0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:08.480 on the cause of border that was the site of 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:11.200 one of the massacres. But the context of his visit 0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:15.200 came after he was embroiled in another anti Semitism scandal 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:19.000 when he endorsed a tweet that was anti Semitic, and 0:02:19.120 --> 0:02:21.880 the last time that he had been in a similar situation. 0:02:22.000 --> 0:02:26.480 He met Nitao Nitunio traveled to California, and this visit 0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:29.720 was also seen as sort of a way to walk 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:31.880 himself out of the latest scandal. 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:35.239 Now, numbers are you during that last meeting they had 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:38.200 in September in California? You were there, correct? 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:39.440 Yeah? 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:44.320 And and what was it like then and how was 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:46.400 that different than now? 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:50.960 So at the time, Nitaniello said to him, you know, 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:53.880 we hope that within the confines of the First Amendment, 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:57.799 you'll fight anti semitism on X. And then that gave 0:02:57.880 --> 0:03:00.600 Musk sort of the platform to say, well, you know, 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:03.640 I'm a post anti semitism, I'm post of racism in 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:06.600 any form. And during this visit they had sort of 0:03:06.600 --> 0:03:10.320 a spaces conversation on X, and anti semitism didn't really 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:12.840 didn't come up at all. Musk also met with the 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:16.840 Israeli president and another cabinet member, and they brought up 0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:21.200 anti semitism, but they spoke generally about combating anti semitism X. 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:26.000 They didn't directly confront him about his own actions. So definitely, 0:03:26.280 --> 0:03:29.800 from Nitagnell's point of view, it wasn't a focus. 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:33.639 But now, Max, we do know that Musk has done 0:03:33.760 --> 0:03:39.160 some tweeting or xing about his most recent embrooliers. 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:39.440 Yeah. 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:43.560 Yeah, So as as Marissa says these Net and Yahoo 0:03:43.600 --> 0:03:46.080 meetings were clearly, you know, part of an effort by 0:03:46.080 --> 0:03:48.360 Elon Musk to say, you know, how could I be 0:03:48.560 --> 0:03:51.440 an anti Semi. I'm like good friends with the you know, 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:54.800 the leader of Israel. He has all along besides these 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:57.800 two meetings, he's had a very kind of steady drumbeat 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:01.360 of interviews essentially claiming that, you know, he's not an 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:04.200 anti Semi. He went on Ben Shapiro's show, he said 0:04:04.240 --> 0:04:07.360 that he's you know, Jewish in the kind of George 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:11.840 Santos way. He Yesterday, while this was going on, one 0:04:11.880 --> 0:04:15.200 of his fans said, you know, I hope this puts 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:18.040 arrest to the to these you know, rumors that Elon 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:21.599 Musk is anti Semitic, and Musk responded, yeah, I hope 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:25.320 so too. I'm paraphrasing here, but essentially endorsed that. So 0:04:25.360 --> 0:04:28.880 he's more or less said that that was one of 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:31.520 his goals here. I think there are real questions about 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:34.320 whether it will achieve what he wants to achieve, because 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:36.720 of course, you know, there's an Israeli audience and then 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:41.800 there's a US audience, and it's a US audience of advertisers, 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:46.640 in particular, who are you know, still concerned about extremist 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:49.320 content on X and the possibility that their ads will 0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:50.240 show next to it. 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:53.719 So, Marissa, how has Musk been received there in Israel? 0:04:54.000 --> 0:04:57.200 So Musk was received warmly by politicians, with the exception 0:04:57.279 --> 0:05:01.200 of the Israeli president sort of bring anti Semitism as 0:05:01.240 --> 0:05:04.640 an issue. There's been just a wave of world leaders 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:06.800 who have been visiting Israel, and among Israelis there's a 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:10.800 certain appreciation for those for those visits, those wartime visits. 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:13.479 On the other hand, there definitely is a lot of 0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:17.880 criticism over both disinformation on X and conspiracy theories about 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:20.880 the war that are that are not being curbed. 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:23.359 I mean we should also say that, like there is 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:27.040 this thread of Elon Musk's endorsement of an you know, 0:05:27.080 --> 0:05:30.200 anti Semitic conspiracy theory. But Elon Musk also just generally 0:05:30.240 --> 0:05:32.520 likes to throw himself into the mix when there is 0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:36.679 a big global controversy. You know, he vowed to fix 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:40.480 the Flint water system during the water crisis. He inserted 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:44.120 himself into the into the Tie Cave rescue. This is 0:05:44.160 --> 0:05:46.360 a guy who you know, likes to be the main 0:05:46.480 --> 0:05:49.800 character and and of course that gets him in trouble 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:51.640 a lot of the time. But I think you know, 0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:54.640 he often does this thing which world leaders also do, 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:56.880 which is, hey, there's a big conflict, let me put 0:05:56.920 --> 0:05:57.640 myself in this. 0:05:57.480 --> 0:06:00.400 So this is this is geopolitical elin right, the sover 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:04.039 that the sovereign Republic of Elon Musk, all right, so rises, 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:11.080 So what other global CEOs have shown up on in 0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:13.760 Israel and gotten this kind of tour from Benjamin Nettanna. 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:17.200 Who none President Biden was here. He got a warm welcome. 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:20.160 World leaders were here, but no CEOs. Obviously this is 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:23.040 very unusual, and it's it's worth pointing out that nittaill 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:25.360 went down south to do this. 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:28.800 Tour with him, taking away from what is presumably fairly 0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:29.600 busy agenda. 0:06:29.720 --> 0:06:33.960 Now yeah, I mean there's a ceasefire so but definitely 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:36.000 definitely it's the middle of the war and there are 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:39.880 hostage exchanges every night. And Ntoniello was in the South 0:06:39.960 --> 0:06:41.440 giving Musk the tour of the key. 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:44.279 Boots, right. So Max, that really does, though, speak again 0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:49.440 to to the power of the geopolitical Elon and and 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:51.760 and the and the influence he wieled you once ranked 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:53.360 him if you were a country, you said, He were 0:06:53.360 --> 0:06:57.800 barely top two hundred. That's crazy. He's totally totally top 0:06:57.880 --> 0:06:58.400 two hundred. 0:06:58.480 --> 0:06:59.960 I mean he's he's the richest person in the world. 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:02.720 So so that gives him a certain status he operates 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:06.640 all these companies. Also, he's got a unique willingness, a 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:09.880 a Kardashian level appetite to be in the middle, middle 0:07:09.880 --> 0:07:12.880 of the storm. And obviously net and Yahou has something 0:07:12.880 --> 0:07:17.440 to gain Bye Bye by showcasing a relationship with Elon Musk. 0:07:17.480 --> 0:07:20.120 And so you have this kind of mutual trade which 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:23.239 we've seen other world leaders make, you know, in the UK, 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:26.400 you know, and elsewhere. It'll it will continue where where 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:29.080 Elon Musk is able to command these audiences. And it's 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:32.240 in everybody. It's in both sides interest to show that 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:34.480 he is of this status and that they are able 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:37.440 to attract, you know, the great the world's great industrialist 0:07:37.560 --> 0:07:40.760 as they see it, to their country. And at the 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:44.560 same time, right there's this possibility that Starlink is going 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:46.840 to become a government contractor, it's going to offer its 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:50.360 its internet services to governments and and so maybe there's 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:53.440 a dual purpose here with this visit, both in terms 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:57.240 of potentially marketing Starlink and making contacts with the Israeli 0:07:57.320 --> 0:07:59.920 government and also trying to say like, how could I 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:02.840 anti Semitic If I, you know, have friends. Look at 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:04.600 my Jewish friend over here, how could I be an 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:05.280 anti Semite? 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:05.600 Right? 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:09.240 So, two birds with one stone now Marissa Starlink his 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:15.680 satellite unit within SpaceX. It came up to a certain 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:16.800 extent during this visit. 0:08:17.400 --> 0:08:19.360 It did come up early on in the war. The 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:22.560 Israeli Communications Ministry said that they were interested in Starlink 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:25.960 to back up Israel's communications during the war. And then 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:29.400 a few weeks later, Musk tweeted that he would be 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:33.560 willing to give Gaza International aid organizations in Gaza access 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:37.760 to Starlink, which immediately infuriated the Israelis, who said that 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:41.240 that would be exploited by Hamas. Then Musk walked it back, said, 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:43.080 oh no, we wouldn't do that without sort of the 0:08:43.080 --> 0:08:46.559 approval of the Israeli Defense Establishment and the US Department 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:48.920 of Defense. And then on the morning of his visit, 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:51.120 while he was sort of in the south with Ntagne 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:54.160 touring the key Boots, the Communications Minister said that they 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:57.480 had reached some sort of understanding under which Israel would 0:08:57.520 --> 0:09:01.040 control Starlink in Israel and in Gaza. That doesn't seem 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:03.719 to be a done deal Starlight. You know, no one 0:09:03.760 --> 0:09:06.400 on Musk side has confirmed that, and the Ministry is 0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:09.400 saying that it's an understanding, but it's not. It's not final, 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:12.240 but it's definitely something that's that's coming up in the 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:13.640 talks and as part. 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:15.520 Of this got it, we got it. Got it. So 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:19.600 no concrete deal yet, but max in general conflict has 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:23.160 been very good for Starlink's business. Yes, well, and. 0:09:23.440 --> 0:09:25.640 It's been very good for SpaceX's business. I mean, people 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:29.640 forget this, but SpaceX is a massive defense contractor and 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:32.560 Starlink the satellite unit, which you know, we and others 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:35.520 have reported, is you know at least considering an IPO 0:09:35.760 --> 0:09:39.240 moving towards an IPO via some kind of spin off. 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:41.640 You know, it would be a natural way for this 0:09:41.760 --> 0:09:45.280 company to you know, get more revenue and also do 0:09:45.360 --> 0:09:47.760 a thing that Elon Musk is good at, which is 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:51.240 you know, kind of court governments. Uh and and and 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:54.040 convince them to give him write him very large checks. 0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:59.079 And so last thing. So he is right. Elon fancies 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:04.120 himself this world leader, and other world leaders seem eager 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:07.280 and keen to make time for him. Why Marissa does 0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:11.920 Benjamin and Yahoo make time for him and entertain him? 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:13.560 And by the way, I think it was it was 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:17.439 no small deal when they went to the to effectively, 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:19.400 you know, a place that was just miles from an 0:10:19.400 --> 0:10:21.559 active war zone. What's in it for him? 0:10:22.400 --> 0:10:25.679 Well, originally when he went to California, it came in 0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:28.280 sort of at the height of protests in Israel's over 0:10:28.320 --> 0:10:30.679 his judicial reforms, and that was being led by the 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:33.360 tech community, and at the time now was very keen 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:36.480 to show that he's tech friendly, that he's sort of 0:10:36.559 --> 0:10:39.480 he cast himself as the person who built Israel's tech economy, 0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:42.480 and so that embrace with Musk at the time was 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:47.079 sort of framed around that. And I think that's still 0:10:47.440 --> 0:10:49.880 something that he's looking for. He's you know, the Israeli 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:52.520 government has sort of spoken about trying to get Musk 0:10:52.640 --> 0:10:56.120 to invest in AI in Israel, to sort of have 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:59.200 a presence in Israel, and I think that's something that continued. 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:02.080 Those talks areits are ongoing. And one of the meetings 0:11:02.160 --> 0:11:04.920 Musks had when he was here was with tech entrepreneurs, 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:07.640 with cybersecurity officials in Israel. 0:11:08.320 --> 0:11:10.760 There's also the question of does this help Elon Musk. 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:13.440 We should say, first of all, Musk has denied, and 0:11:13.480 --> 0:11:16.599 we've said this on other podcasts, denied that he's anti Semitic, 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:19.240 that this isn't entirely just like a bogus media conspiracy. 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:20.400 I think like that. 0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:23.200 It's it's unlikely that this is going to make much 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:26.040 of a dent, either in the advertising boycott or in 0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:28.760 the like larger narrative about him. 0:11:28.880 --> 0:11:29.800 I mean, you know, we're. 0:11:30.000 --> 0:11:33.679 We're seeing essentially a similar strategy to one that Donald 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:36.160 Trump deployed right where he was. He was very close 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:41.400 to net Yahu and also very unpopular among American Jews. 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:44.040 And so it is not necessarily like those two things, 0:11:44.160 --> 0:11:47.280 they don't necessarily go together. It's not clear that anyone's 0:11:47.320 --> 0:11:50.200 going to buy this. It's it's a pretty weak defense 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:53.520 of the of the bad tweet that he did. When 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:56.199 he could, he still could just apologize, and of course 0:11:56.240 --> 0:11:56.840 he's not doing that. 0:11:57.200 --> 0:11:59.560 Yeah, it's not it's not on brand, and he's not 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:02.720 doing it, nor do I suspect will he listen, Marissa, 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:04.240 thank you very much for your time. 0:12:04.679 --> 0:12:05.040 Thank you. 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:13.320 We'll have you on again soon. Okay, we're back and 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:16.559 joining me and Max now is Dana Hall. Dana, welcome back. 0:12:16.640 --> 0:12:17.120 Good morning. 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:20.520 So then when I woke up this morning, and as 0:12:20.640 --> 0:12:23.080 I always do, I went right to my Bloomberg terminal, 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:26.360 the number one read story this morning was your story. 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:32.200 Musk's cybertruck is already a production nightmare for Tesla. It 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:36.000 is indeed, these things are hitting the road. What's gone 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:39.040 so wrong? Why has it taken so long for them 0:12:39.080 --> 0:12:41.760 to get it here? And what does it look like 0:12:41.920 --> 0:12:44.240 going forward in terms of them ramping up output. 0:12:44.800 --> 0:12:47.319 Yeah, so I think what's interesting to me is that, 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:50.840 as you all may remember, Musk first unveiled this cyber 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:53.960 truck four years ago in November of twenty nineteen, and 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:56.680 that was the big event where, you know, it was 0:12:56.760 --> 0:12:59.679 like this huge viral event. They sort of unveiled the truck, 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:02.120 were kind of a gast and shocked at how weird 0:13:02.160 --> 0:13:06.360 it looked. They tried to prove that the glass was shatterproof, 0:13:06.440 --> 0:13:09.319 and they threw like a mallet or a ball at it, 0:13:09.360 --> 0:13:11.600 and the glass shattered and it went viral. It was 0:13:11.600 --> 0:13:13.640 like this incredible, incredible event. 0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:19.160 Well, maybe that was a little too hard. 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:23.560 Four years later, the night, you know, we're finally going 0:13:23.640 --> 0:13:26.120 to actually see the vehicles like handed over to the 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:29.040 first trusted customers. It'll probably be a mix of like 0:13:29.120 --> 0:13:32.280 employees and friends of Elon, and so Tesla is having 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:34.360 this big event on Thursday to kind of do the 0:13:34.400 --> 0:13:37.880 handover of the very first cyber trucks. And in the meantime, 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:40.840 cyber trucks have shown up in showrooms. So I went 0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:43.600 on Sunday to go see one. I had a showroom 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:45.280 here in the Bay Area, and you know, the cyber 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:48.840 truck is like surrounded by ropes and everyone's like crammed 0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:51.600 in like taking selfies of it, and so it's like 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:53.760 the vehicle exists, like you can go see them. 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:55.720 So there was a big there's a big crowd. 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:57.280 Oh yeah, it was a big It was a big 0:13:57.320 --> 0:14:01.560 like Black Friday shopping things, a big way for Tesla 0:14:01.600 --> 0:14:05.520 to get folks into the showroom. But simultaneously, everything that 0:14:05.520 --> 0:14:07.960 Elon Musk has said about the cyber truck just like 0:14:08.480 --> 0:14:11.000 gives me the spidy sense that things are not going well. 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:13.760 And the wonderful thing about Elon as a CEO is 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:17.760 that he's remarkably frank, almost frank to a fault, And 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:20.720 on the last Ernie's call, he just went on and 0:14:20.760 --> 0:14:23.400 on about how the cyber truck is going to be 0:14:23.520 --> 0:14:26.600 really hard to make. It's going to take blood, sweat 0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:29.640 and tears to get it to volume production. He went 0:14:29.720 --> 0:14:31.840 so far as to say that they dug their own grave. 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:34.880 We dug our own grave of cer cyber trucks, every 0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:36.760 big tigs are gray better than themselves. 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:39.480 When he does say that, when he says things like 0:14:39.560 --> 0:14:42.640 we dug our own grave, which, by the way, Max, 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:45.479 in terms of hopping on on a call with investors 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:47.160 and saying something like that about a product you're about 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:48.920 to release, that's pretty unusual. 0:14:49.000 --> 0:14:51.640 No, well, I mean, I think he's trying to manage 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:55.840 expectations because from the sort of like Tesla bowl point 0:14:55.840 --> 0:14:58.080 of view, the cyber truck has a lot of potentially 0:14:58.080 --> 0:15:01.080 You got to remember, like big picture, he Tesla has 0:15:01.120 --> 0:15:05.280 has been struggling or at least managing demand, like how 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:08.200 much do customers really want these cars? They've sold so 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:11.200 many model threes, And this is a car that's been 0:15:11.240 --> 0:15:13.920 on the market and model wise, the suv version of 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:15.400 the All three, this is a car that's been on 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:17.360 the market for a really long time. You know, there's 0:15:17.360 --> 0:15:19.960 a potential for sort of fatigue. Right, You're basically talking 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:24.160 about a sensible, you know, smallish car. It's not the 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:26.320 kind of thing that people get really excited about. On 0:15:26.360 --> 0:15:28.240 top of that, you have Elon Musk kind of every 0:15:28.320 --> 0:15:31.600 day going on Twitter and saying stuff that is you know, 0:15:31.840 --> 0:15:35.080 edgy or borderline you know, racist, as we discussed earlier, 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:38.280 and so like that. These things are all, you know, 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:42.360 arguably harming to demand for these cars. Meanwhile, you have 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:45.120 this brand new design. It's really snazzy. It's in a 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:48.040 category that you know, obviously moves a lot of numbers. 0:15:48.120 --> 0:15:50.960 Trucks are you know, bigger category than cars in the 0:15:51.040 --> 0:15:54.119 United States. So so this is like a huge opportunity, 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:57.760 and I think Elon Musk has been trying diligently to 0:15:57.920 --> 0:16:01.440 get investors to understand that, Yeah, while he sees the opportunity, 0:16:01.480 --> 0:16:03.680 it's a long term opportunity, not something that's going to 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:04.920 happen in the next year. 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:10.440 Now, Dan, when he came up with this super unique design, 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:13.760 I think inspired in part by one of his children, 0:16:15.800 --> 0:16:18.560 what is the profile of the buyer that he had 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:22.080 in mind? As a truck owner myself, I do not 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:25.720 see myself changing turning in my Chevy Colorado anytime soon 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:29.680 for a cyber truck. Who is the buyer of this vehicle? 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:31.960 Well, that's the big question, right. So the truck market 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:34.720 in the United States, it's pretty formulaic. You have some 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:39.920 big brands like the Ford F one fifty, the Chevy Silverado, 0:16:40.120 --> 0:16:42.440 and you know, trucks kind of look the same and 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:44.840 like every new truck is basically an iteration of the 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:48.040 very basic design with better specs, And this is like 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:52.760 a category defining vehicle. Will the contractor who needs to 0:16:52.880 --> 0:16:56.400 like haul lumber to their job site, like drive this thing? 0:16:56.600 --> 0:16:58.360 I don't know. I mean there's a lot of questions 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:00.920 about what is the actual Well, we don't know the 0:17:00.920 --> 0:17:03.040 specs yet, and we don't know the range, and we 0:17:03.080 --> 0:17:05.120 don't know the price, because those are sort of big 0:17:05.200 --> 0:17:07.080 unknowns that I presume we'll get on Thursday. 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:09.880 When I think about trucks, I feel like I break 0:17:09.880 --> 0:17:12.920 them down and truck buyers into two categories. Those who 0:17:12.960 --> 0:17:16.160 buy trucks for the utility of them, and then those 0:17:16.200 --> 0:17:19.239 who buy trucks for the statement and the look. I 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:23.160 don't I can't envision anybody who's a truck buyer who's 0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:26.000 looking for the utility of the vehicle it's hauling and 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:27.800 so on and so forth, even though of course I 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:30.360 know the cyber truck can do those things. Is looking 0:17:30.680 --> 0:17:32.720 to hey, let me get me, we when we plunk 0:17:32.800 --> 0:17:35.600 down X amount of dollars for that thing. To me, 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:38.200 it's almost more like your buyer is like the buyer 0:17:38.240 --> 0:17:40.640 who bought Hummers years ago. 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:40.960 Right. 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:43.359 The other thing to remember about the truck market is 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:45.399 that like half of it is fleet sales, like you 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:49.800 know at and t utility workers, you know, like PG. 0:17:50.200 --> 0:17:51.560 I mean, a lot of a lot of these, a 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:54.040 lot of a lot of truck A lot of trucks 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:57.400 are bought by corporate fleets, and so I don't think 0:17:57.440 --> 0:17:59.800 that the cyber truck is going to appeal to that buyer. 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:03.119 So you've got sort of the consumer who's buying it 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:06.560 as a lifestyle statement, you know, I mean, it will 0:18:06.560 --> 0:18:09.200 have it a certain appeal. There are definitely fanboys and 0:18:09.720 --> 0:18:12.199 Tesla fans, you know, who will buy this thing, But 0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:15.080 how many how many are we talking about? 0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:18.080 That fleet buyer is precisely to the point that fleet 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:22.000 buyer is absolutely a utility buyer. It's it's utility of 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:22.480 the vehicle. 0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:25.560 Right utility buyers. You know, like if a corporation wants 0:18:25.600 --> 0:18:28.200 to buy a bunch of trucks for their contractors or 0:18:28.240 --> 0:18:31.480 their workers, they tend to want to buy them in bulk. 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:33.480 They want to make sure that the parts are there 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:35.959 to fix them if needed. They want to have a 0:18:36.160 --> 0:18:39.120 pretty quick turnaround time in case there's any maintenance issues, 0:18:39.160 --> 0:18:41.720 Like they are not going to be plunking down to 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:44.520 buy this vehicle in high numbers anytime soon. And I 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:46.800 don't even think the fleet buyer is part of the 0:18:46.800 --> 0:18:49.640 equation at all. So it's consumers. Is it the La 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:52.040 guy who wants to pretend that he's Mad Max on 0:18:52.080 --> 0:18:56.000 the freeways of southern California? Is it the Texas person? 0:18:56.720 --> 0:18:56.919 You know? 0:18:56.920 --> 0:18:58.760 And there's all these like bells and whistles that they 0:18:58.840 --> 0:19:01.359 keep talking about like it's bulletproof or you can sling 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:03.840 an arrow at it, Like do you need that? Like 0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:06.640 does does is that something that the that the American 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:10.760 consumer actually needs? So it's it seems like it's it's 0:19:10.880 --> 0:19:14.119 you know, they're they're obsessing about these things that like 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:17.440 I wasn't really aware that the average American truck buyer 0:19:17.600 --> 0:19:21.960 was crying out for a bulletproof vehicle. Like maybe maybe 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:24.480 I'm maybe I'm an optimist about the state of the world, 0:19:24.520 --> 0:19:27.480 But yeah, who who buys this is a very interesting question. 0:19:27.560 --> 0:19:29.840 There will be buyers, no question, but I think it's 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:31.960 gonna be pretty niche just like the Model X. 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:35.600 If you're reading tat turn and you're watching those SpaceX launches, 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:38.159 you are going to buy a cyber truck. But but 0:19:38.240 --> 0:19:41.639 the truth is that is a narrow constituency. The big 0:19:41.680 --> 0:19:45.000 constituency are these kind of sensible car buyers, and that 0:19:45.119 --> 0:19:46.760 is a group he is not speaking to right now. 0:19:50.720 --> 0:19:52.720 I have another question for you, Dan and your piece today, 0:19:52.720 --> 0:19:55.960 does indeed get at this a lot? Let's pretend indeed 0:19:55.960 --> 0:19:59.160 that demand for these vehicles is booming. And by the way, 0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:01.720 demand for vehic for EV's in general, including some EV 0:20:01.840 --> 0:20:04.720 trucks from Ford and Chevy's, kind of seems a little spotty. 0:20:04.720 --> 0:20:09.119 But let's pretend it does boom. Can they ramp and 0:20:09.240 --> 0:20:12.480 scale up output as needed to meet that demand? 0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:14.840 Well, that's what he's warned is going to be very 0:20:14.960 --> 0:20:18.000 very slow. And I think that when Elon Musk says 0:20:18.040 --> 0:20:20.320 something's going to be hard, like listen to him, Like 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:23.399 this guy has done this before. And what's fascinating is 0:20:23.400 --> 0:20:25.320 that it's like it's almost like they're repeating the same 0:20:25.359 --> 0:20:27.520 mistake that they made with the Model X. They've they've 0:20:27.560 --> 0:20:29.639 sort of fell on their sword and finally emitted the 0:20:29.640 --> 0:20:32.600