Elon Musk warned Tuesday evening that early production of the Cybercab and the Optimus humanoid robot will be slow as Tesla prepares for key product launches next week. The comment came ahead of Tesla’s fourth-quarter earnings report and conference call, and Musk framed the warning as an effort to set expectations.
Musk posted that “The speed of the production ramp is inversely proportionate to how many new parts and steps there are.” He added that “For Cybercab and Optimus, almost everything is new, so the early production rate will be agonizingly slow, but eventually end up being fast.”
The stock had fallen about 4.5% over the prior week but rallied 4.21% on Wednesday. Shares also moved higher after Musk said vehicles with the AI4 (HW4) chip will reach unsupervised autonomous driving without needing upgrades, and he noted that AI6 and AI7 will expand AI compute capacity.
Insurer Lemonade announced a 50% rate cut for drivers using Full Self-Driving, the $99-per-month option from Tesla, a move the company framed as endorsement of safety claims. (Ed. note: Full Self-Driving has faced recent regulatory scrutiny and accident reports.)
At press time, Tesla stock traded near its 52-week high and remained above the 200-day simple moving average.
