Elon Musk calls COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders ‘fascist’ on Tesla Q1 earnings call

Tesla’s earnings calls generally have the potential to be a kind of roller coaster ride – remember that when Elon yelled at journalists? – and Wednesday was no different. Musk talked about a number of things on this week’s call, including Tesla’s scheduled battery day, Model Y. Subframe castings and, um, some pretty strong opinions about the shelter-in-place commands that were made to stop that Corona virus Pandemic.

Let’s start with the less controversial news. Musk said Tesla plans to offer its full self-driving package as a subscription option later this year. This is remarkable because while the company has been working to add functionality to the plan, it still doesn’t seem to offer anywhere near real autonomy – at least not for public consumption.

Musk and the company claim that while the service will be available as a subscription, customers will still need to order cars to check the $ 7,000 option box and include the cost of FSD in their vehicle loan. Is that really the case? It most likely depends on the buyer.

Next we got some information about Tesla’s planned battery day. This is the continuation of the company’s battery technology Autonomy Investor Day that it took place at its Silicon Valley headquarters last year. Musk said at the conference call that Battery Day will be one of the most important and exciting in Tesla history and that the company is aiming for the third week of May for this to happen. He also dropped that it would either be in California (probably again at Tesla’s headquarters) or in Texas.

On the subject of Tesla’s cars, Musk claims that the EPA botched the recertification of The latest S range is 391 miles by leaving the keys in the vehicle overnight and leaving a door open, which is said to have resulted in the car’s lights remaining on and in a state where it was waiting for the driver. Although we cannot prove whether this is actually the case, Musk has promised to send the car back to the EPA for re-testing when the agency reopens.

Another interesting treat was the model Y’s new cast rear body. While Model 3 uses a structure made from over 70 embossed steel parts, Model Y uses an extremely advanced two-piece cast aluminum structure that not only reduces complexity, but also weight and cost . In addition, Tesla plans to simplify it even further later this year through a one-piece casting. Musk claims that this will be the largest and most complex casting used in a car.

And finally we come to Elon’s problematic outbreak on the subject of COVID-19 and the protection orders that were issued to slow the spread. Earlier this week, Musk wrote on Twitter: “NOW FREE AMERICA, “which in itself was a reasonably clear explanation of his feelings about the matter. However, during the call, he decided to explain further.

“Is it right to violate people’s rights? I think people will be very angry and very angry about it,” said Musk. “It is fascist. It is not democratic. It is not freedom. Give people back their goddamn freedom.”

Now we’re not going to go into the debate about life or livelihood here, but it is worth noting that Musk’s opinion is in direct contradiction to the wishes of California Governor Gavin Newsom and security agencies such as the World Health Organization and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Tesla did not immediately respond to Roadshow’s request for comment.

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