Elon Musk has repeatedly made promises that don’t come to fruition when it comes to his multibillion-dollar businesses.
The world’s richest man is accused of overpromising the timeline for everything from Tesla’s Full Self Driving vehicles, affordable cars, and Robotaxis to humans landing on Mars.
“Next year” has become a firm favorite for Musk, who has been distracted lately by cutting and dismantling federal agencies through the Department of Government Efficiency on behalf of President Donald Trump.
Musk recently announced he is stepping back from frontline politics and taking his vast wealth with him after Tesla’s earnings took a hit in April, dipping 71 percent in profits.
It was a wake-up call for Musk, who vowed to refocus on his businesses and leave Washington, D.C and the trail of destruction behind.
While his investors may be pleased that his chainsaw-wielding, cheese-hat-wearing days are over for now, they are also likely “frustrated” by all of the times Musk’s predictions have fallen flat, WIRED reports.
“My predictions have a pretty good track record,” Musk told Tesla staff in March, but WIRED found otherwise in an assessment of all the times his predictions were wrong.
In October 2015, Musk promised Tesla “will have a car that can do full autonomy in about three years.”
He then amended that deadline in January 2016 to be “within two years.” In June 2016, Musk even claimed he considered “autonomous driving to be a basically solved problem,” WIRED noted.
“We’re less than two years away from complete autonomy,” he said in the familiar statement.
But the deadline consistently kept slipping.
In November 2018, he told tech journalist and podcast host Kara Swisher: “I think we’ll get to full self-driving next year.”
Five years later, in May 2023, Musk told CNBC that “it looks like” autonomous driving is “gonna happen this year.” Two months later, he acknowledged he is “the boy who cried FSD.”
On an earnings call last month, Musk repeated the prediction yet again. “I feel confident in predicting large scale autonomy around the middle of next year,” he said. “There will be millions of Teslas operating autonomously, fully autonomously in the second half of next year.”
Similarly, Musk predicted his long-awaited robot taxi would be on the road by mid-2020. “Next year for sure, we’ll have over a million robotaxis on the road,” he said in April 2019.
Five years on, Tesla’s robotaxi service will be on the streets of Austin, Texas by the end of June, Musk pledged last week.
There is also no confirmed date yet for the launch of Tesla’s Optimus robots, which Musk said would be able to “clean your house, will mow the lawn, will walk the dog, will teach your kids, will babysit.”
At an earnings call two months ago, he claimed: “I'm hopefully ready for Optimus to be used outside of Tesla controlled environment maybe around the middle of next year second half of next year.”
Musk also predicted humans could step onto Mars by 2024, which he called in December 2020 in an interview with Business Insider.
“When will we see the first human on Mars?” the billionaire was asked. “Most likely six years from now, possibly four years,” Musk said.
He first pledged in 2006 to deliver an affordably priced family car, which is now delayed until 2026, according to Reuters.
Why, after three decades of pushing right-wing causes, Farage has lurched left
NPR sues ‘wolf’ Trump over ‘textbook retaliation’ for slashing funds
The Latest: NPR and stations file lawsuit against Trump, arguing ending federal funding is illegal
UK and US should cooperate on AI to counter China ‘threat’, says Mandelson
New grooming standards in the Marines will target Black men, critics charge
Tapper mocked for ‘willfully choosing to take a joke wrong’ after raging over podcast
