You can't be serious. The shareholders demand returns, but the EV side of the company already has been successful enough to keep them placated. No one forced Musk to go out there and repeatedly claim that Telsa's would be able to be used as robotaxis, or that you'd be able to drive across country with no hands. He's still out there making these outlandish claims! At some point, the music is going to stop.
> This is the problem. Shareholders demand short term returns, not a long term safe/sustainable future and long term returns.
So what? There's nothing wrong about that. Shareholders demand both long term stability and short term returns btw - if the market thought there are no long term returns to be had, the stock price would've crashed.
Shareholders don't have much say about how Tesla does it, and they're actually the ones defrauded.
The shareholders can demand whatever they want including shiny unicorns. Musk and Tesla are entitled to say "No".
When Tim Cook was asked pointed questions on why Apple gave a crap about environmental concerns, rather than focussing on pure profit über-alles, he smacked down the questioner [1]
"If you want me to do things only for ROI reasons, you should get out of this stock.”
A company's decisions can be guided by shareholders, but it's on the company to forge their own path. If the shareholders don't like it, they'll vote with their feet. Promising unicorns to keep the feet planted where they are is not a good strategy.
