Tesla board of directors says Musk has someone in mind to be Tesla CEO
Tesla
It appears Elon Musk may soon have more time to spend at Tesla. The CEO confirmed he is looking for someone to run his newly acquired company — Twitter. Musk tweeted: I will continue to run Twitter until it is in a strong place, which will take some time. It's a good sign for people concerned about his other companies, like Tesla, which presently don't have the same amount of Musk's attention. The current situation has intensified concerns around the succession plan for Tesla after Musk.
CEO Succession Plans
In testimony during the trial about Musk's pay package, James Murdoch, a member of Tesla's board of directors, was asked if Musk had identified someone as a potential successor. He said, "He actually has," Reuters reported. However, who that person is, was not said, nor was a timeline.
Reuters also reported that a former board member, Antonio Gracias, testified that there have been conversations about finding an "administrative CEO." This position would oversee sales, finance, and human resources "so Musk can focus his time as chief product officer, which is his most vital function."
Musk's Views on CEO
Musk gave some insight into his views on a CEO during his testimony. CNBC reported he said, "CEO is often viewed as somewhat of a business-focused role. But in reality, my role is much more that of an engineer developing technology and making sure that we develop breakthrough technologies and that we have a team of incredible engineers who can achieve those goals." He also said, "It's my experience that great engineers will only work for a great engineer. That is my first duty, not that of CEO."
Succession was Asked in August
Gary Black, the Future Fund managing partner, asked Musk point blank about succession during the shareholders' event in August. Black said, "the thing we worry about most is not PR; it's succession. So key man risk is a big thing. How does the board think about your succession?"
Musk responded, "It's a good question. To be frank, I don't have an easy answer. Open to ideas. I'm definitely working as hard as I can, and I'm very excited about the future of the company. I think it has a very bright future even without me. I'm not leaving, to be clear."
The CEO added that the company has an exciting road map that will be difficult to execute, but he will continue to work hard on the plan. "We do have a very talented team here, so I think Tesla would do very well even if I were kidnapped by aliens or went back to my home planet," joked Musk.
That statement is being put to the test. Musk is currently spending much of his valuable time on Twitter while the Tesla team has a lot of work to do. Tesla is preparing for the Semi launch on December 1, Full Self Driving Version 11 for wide release soon, Cybertruck production and several other projects that we have yet to be aware of. The faster Musk gets Twitter to the level he wants it to be, the faster he can focus on Tesla. But we've been given a preview of what life at Tesla may be like once the co-founder and CEO steps down.
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Tesla Investor Relations has officially confirmed that they will conduct the Robotaxi unveiling event on October 10th in Los Angeles. Event sign-up will be done using a random drawing for Tesla shareholders. The final date for entries is a week from today, on September 17th at midnight, and the selected shareholders will be announced the week of September 23rd.
Sign Up
You’ll need to own Tesla stock ($TSLA) to participate and will be required to verify your shareholder status on the Investor Relations site. The random drawing provides a better opportunity for those who hold lots of Tesla shares, as they’ll have a higher number of entries. You get one entry per confirmed share held.
At the moment, there are no details on the timing of the event, nor anything about +1 attendees. However, one item of note is that event draw winners cannot transfer their tickets to another party – which means if you get a ticket, it's for you and nobody else.
If you’re located in the United States, you can use ‘Say’ – Tesla’s Investor Relations partner – to automatically verify your shareholder status. For those outside of the United States, unless you’re trading with an American bank, you will need to provide an updated statement showing shareholder status for September 2024. Say takes about 3-5 business days to verify statements, so be sure to sign up early.
Robotaxi Event
The Robotaxi event will take place at the Warner Bros. Discovery Studios in LA, and Tesla has been pre-emptively gathering FSD data around the neighborhood. This likely means that the event will include a demonstration of Robotaxi’s capabilities and a reveal of the Robotaxi itself. We’re hoping that attendees will have the opportunity to sit in and experience Robotaxi delivering them from Point A to Point B inside of the Discovery Studios set pieces.
It’s expected to be one of Tesla’s most interesting and notable events, as this is the first reveal of the much-talked-about Robotaxi, which has been Tesla’s goal for its Full Self-Driving software since Elon Musk’s Masterplan I.
Tesla’s latest FSD update, version 2024.27.5 brings some improvements when parking your vehicle. This is another undocumented, but one we’re happy to see.
Most recently, the Cybertruck received the undocumented change for the Hands-Free Frunk opening (video below). The Cybertruck also recently received Vision Park Assist, which included steering wheel guides in the visualization showing the direction the front and rear wheels were turned. However, it turns out this isn’t just for the Cybertruck.
Update: We’ve updated this article to mention that this feature isn’t included in update 2024.32 yet.
Quick video on the auto frunk. It's literally 🧍♂️📐
Due to the Cybertruck’s unique rear-wheel steering and steer-by-wire design, Park Assist in the Cybertruck displayed the path of the front wheels, and how they would swing while reversing.
This enhancement is also coming to every Tesla vehicle in FSD 12.5.2 and later. It’s also expected to be available in a future update for non-FSD vehicles. However, it’s unclear whether it will be a later revision of update 2024.32 or the next major Tesla update. This is a neat little update, as it helps drivers better understand and predict the path their vehicle will take during a turn.
Brandon, going by @teslaflexx on X, originally spotted the new visuals recently on an AMD-based Model Y running 2024.27.5 and FSD V12.5.2.
Any vehicles who are on update 2024.27.5 or 2024.27.20 should have access to this new feature.
Looks like Cybertruck wasn’t the only vehicle to get the new guide visuals with park assist. Much better than the lines! pic.twitter.com/tF9ZsWCcWy
![Elon talks about Twitter and job cuts at Bloomberg forum [video]](https://www.notateslaapp.com/images/news/2022/elon-musk-qatar-forum_300w.jpg)
