This was the aspect of the earnings call that I found the most unsettling. My takeaway from the call was, "They want to do
what? Stop working on a lower-priced vehicle because they're going to solve FSD first???" My next thought was, "Please tell me that's just deflection." On a re-read of the transcript, I think it is abundantly clear that my initial read was wrong and Elon was simply deflecting about a lower-priced car (as he should), and coupling that deflection with waxing philosophically about car ownership.
The important bit here is: "at some point, we will, but we have enough on our plate right now, too much on our plate, frankly. So, you know, at some point, there will be." Elon
then transitions to autonomy and FSD, which was more of a philosophical offshoot of the thought that likely ran through his head of, "When we solve FSD, a $25K car will become irrelevant." At this point in the call, I think it's apparent on its face that their decision to not work on the $25K car is more about current demand for higher margin vehicles and
not because of an all-in strategy with FSD, which was more of an offshoot of the concept of car ownership financials.
Later, we get:
Again, Elon is reiterating confidence in the ability to grow volumes with current lineup (remember, he thinks Model Y will be the best-selling car in the world), and then launching from there into a philosophical examination of car ownership and how FSD would change that paradigm.
It doesn't jump out at one on a first-listen or read, and it's easy to conflate the two into "We don't need a $25K car because FSD bro!" But I honestly think what we're getting here is part deflection, and part Elon being Elon and looking out to what he sees as the true endgame.
For now, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.