Yesterday on X, Elon Musk posted that the two key resolutions for the upcoming Shareholder Meeting were both passing by wide margins – and would subsequently go on to pass at today’s Shareholder Meeting.
Musk Compensation Package and Tesla’s Move to Texas
The two key resolutions, one on Elon Musk’s performance-based compensation package, and the other on Tesla’s re-incorporation to Texas, both passed in the preliminary stages. Each required a minimum number of ‘Yes’ votes to pass at the Shareholder Meeting.
The performance-based compensation package only required a simple majority – a certain number of Yes votes, with abstentions not counting as Nos. On the other hand, the move to Texas required a full majority, with abstentions counting as Nos.
Elon Musk declared his victory on X in these two key votes, and Tesla’s share prices moved favorably in post-market, and then again in pre-market trading. This is a positive indicator for Tesla and Elon Musk. On X, Elon recently agreed that given he has received a controlling stake in Tesla, he would work towards making Tesla the most valuable company on Earth.
The first five proposals are Tesla corporate proposals, while the remainder are shareholder proposals, and are covered in the table below. For more details, you can read Tesla’s Proxy Package. The proposals are ordered below in the order of presentation.
All the proposals passed in line with the board’s recommendation, except for two, which were to reduce director terms to one year and for simple majority stockholder voting.
Resolution
Board Recommendation
Vote Result
Elect 2 Directors for a 3 Year term (James Murdock, Kimball Musk)
For
For
Non-Binding Advisory-basis Executive Compensation
For
For
Move Tesla to Texas
For
For
Elon Musk’s Compensation Package
For
For
Appoint PricewaterhouseCoopers as Tesla’s accounting firm.
For
For
Reduce Director Terms to 1 Year
Against
For
Simple Majority Stockholder Voting
Against
For
Annual Report on Anti-Harassment and Discrimination
Against
Against
Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining Policy
Against
Against
Report on EM Radiation and Wireless Technologies, and effects on humans.
Against
Against
Adopting targets and reports for sustainability metrics for executive compensation
Against
Against
Moratorium on sourcing minerals from deep-sea mining.
For the first time in quite a while, Tesla has increased the price of one of its vehicle offerings. The Model S Long Range and the Model S Plaid have both received a hefty price increase. However, not all is bad - as Tesla also added a new benefit for buyers.
Price Increase
The price increase for the Model S is $5,000 - currently only in the United States. This price increase will likely impact other markets, including Canada, in the coming days.
The Model S Long Range now starts at $79,990, while the Model S Plaid now starts at $94,990. The Model S and Model X now have the same starting price. Interestingly, that’s also the same pricing point for the Cybertruck AWD and Cyberbeast Trimotor non-Foundation Series.
The vehicle configuration does not appear to have changed, so the new pricing is simply an increase rather than the addition or removal of features. Tesla previously cut the price of the Model S and Model X by 15% in 2023, so this could simply be an adjustment to ensure that the vehicle pricing stays in line with inflation and other factors.
Free Lifetime Supercharging
For those on the fence about ordering a Model S, Tesla has brought back Free Lifetime Supercharging when you order a new Model S on or after December 13, 2024. As always, Free Lifetime Supercharging is restricted to the buyer’s Tesla account and to that specific vehicle. It cannot be transferred to another vehicle or another owner after ownership transfer. It’s worth noting, that it also doesn’t exclude the owner from receiving Supercharger idle fees or congestion fees. There is currently no end date for this promotion.
There are currently no changes to the Model X, neither a price increase nor the addition of Lifetime Superchargering. However, when Tesla makes changes to one of their premium vehicles, it usually affects the other one as well. So be on the lookout for potential changes to the Model X offering in the coming days.
We’ve seen Tesla value Lifetime Supercharging at $5,000, so this falls in line with the price increase we’re seeing. It’s possible that Tesla will begin to bring back Lifetime Supercharging as a perk for buying into their more premium Model S and Model X cars, or this could be another temporary promotion to get buyers who are on the fence to go ahead and make their purchase while this promotion lasts.
Tesla recently showed off a demo of Optimus, its humanoid robot, walking around in moderately challenging terrain—not on a flat surface but on dirt and slopes. These things can be difficult for a humanoid robot, especially during the training cycle.
Most interestingly, Milan Kovac, VP of Engineering for Optimus, clarified what it takes to get Optimus to this stage. Let’s break down what he said.
Optimus is Blind
Optimus is getting seriously good at walking now - it can keep its balance over uneven ground - even while walking blind. Tesla is currently using just the sensors, all powered by a neural net running on the embedded computer.
Essentially, Tesla is building Optimus from the ground up, relying on as much additional data as possible while it trains vision. This is similar to how they train FSD on vehicles, using LiDAR rigs to validate the vision system’s accuracy. While Optimus doesn’t have LiDAR, it relies on all those other sensors on board, many of which will likely become simplified as vision takes over as the primary sensor.
Today, Optimus is walking blind, but it’s able to react almost instantly to changes in the terrain underneath it, even if it falls or slips.
What’s Next?
Next up, Tesla AI will be adding vision to Optimus - helping complete the neural net. Remember, Optimus runs on the same overall AI stack as FSD - in fact, Optimus uses an FSD computer and an offshoot of the FSD stack for vision-based tasks.
Milan mentions they’re planning on adding vision to help the robot plan ahead and improve its walking gait. While the zombie shuffle is iconic and a little bit amusing, getting humanoid robots to walk like humans is actually difficult.
There’s plenty more, too - including better responsiveness to velocity and direction commands and learning to fall and stand back up. Falling while protecting yourself to minimize damage is something natural to humans - but not exactly natural to something like a robot. Training it to do so is essential in keeping the robot, the environment around it, and the people it is interacting with safe.
We’re excited to see what’s coming with Optimus next because it is already getting started in some fashion in Tesla’s factories.
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