During an earnings call on Wednesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that he has three main goals for his electric car company while getting in a healthy dose of smack talk against various competitors.
Musk’s three main goals for Tesla are to make sure that the Model 3, the fourth car to be launched in the company’s history, is finished on time and can be priced at an affordable rate; to advance Tesla’s autonomous vehicle software, which has been criticized for being unsafe; and improving the company’s high-energy battery pack for its cars.
Musk also used the opportunity to take swipes at some of his industry critics and competitors. In response to former General Motors chairman Bob Lutz, who compared Tesla’s supporters to a religious cult, Musk tweeted: “Dear cult members, I love you.”
Similarly, in response to reports that Tesla has a war against Uber because it will not allow its self-driving vehicles to be used by Uber drivers, Musk responded, "Sometimes this has been characterized as Tesla versus Uber or Lyft or something like that. It's not Tesla versus Uber, it's the people versus Uber."
All of these announcements occurred on the same day it was announced that Tesla had just earned its first quarterly profit in three years. It generated $21.88 million in net income in the third quarter, compared to $229.86 million loss at the same time last year.
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