Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

Show NLP summaries collection recirc on article pages

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Senators studied AI for a year. Critics call the result ‘pathetic.’

Cruise settles with person dragged under one of its robotaxis

Google’s AI answers could come back to bite it

Look to the cloud to protect the life documents saved on your computer

Can you spot bad financial advice on TikTok? Take our quiz.

5 myths about Social Security as the program faces a funding crisis

Puppy abandoned with heart-rending note is adopted, named Minerva

Man, 91, shocks tiny firehouse with $500K gift: ‘Nobody knew how much I’d saved’

Retired cop meets abandoned baby he helped 23 years ago: ‘What are the odds?’

Voters key to past Democratic wins are skeptical and undermotivated

Trump’s ‘they’re out to get me’ campaign and its enablers

Biden campaign accepts invite to a vice-presidential debate 

The Post’s choices in Northern Virginia’s U.S. House primaries

States see legalized sports betting as a tax windfall — but at what cost?

Haiti’s plight is a case study in the ‘responsibility to protect’

The 34 best things to do in D.C. this weekend and next week

Rating every game on the Commanders’ 2024 schedule

8 best things to do with kids in the D.C. area this weekend 

Carolyn Hax: Fiancé plans to have a baby with someone else

Ask Amy: I’m scared of my adult stepson who keeps losing his temper

Ask Sahaj: I live with my parents and generational trauma ‘runs the house’

Netflix will air NFL’s Christmas games, a major step for streaming service

Sam Feist, longtime CNN executive, will become CEO of C-SPAN

Michael Cohen testimony ties Donald Trump to hush money payment

Who is Robert Fico? What to know about Slovakia’s leader who was shot.

Middle East conflict live updates: U.S.-built pier anchored in Gaza; ICJ hears Rafah is ‘endgame’ in Gaza destruction

Slovakia’s Fico in serious condition; suspect charged with attempted murder

6 Airbnb red flags to spot before you make a booking mistake

Cruise ships to return to Baltimore two months after bridge collapse 

Some cruise prices are about to get a little more clear

Best Places to Work in the Federal Government 2023

A hō’ike in Virginia celebrates Hawaiian life

Think you can build a gold-medal U.S. gymnastics team? Try it.

President Joe Biden Joint Chiefs and Combatant Commanders 

Big Tech news and how to take control of your data and devices

See more coverage in your recommendations

Technology

Tips delivered to your inbox twice weekly

The Tech Friend newsletter

Business and Tech alerts

Updated with Musk’s responses from Friday morning.

Maybe he was tired. Maybe he was hangry. Or maybe the stress of trying to revolutionize the way the world produces cars is finally getting to Elon Musk.

Whatever the reason, Tesla’s billionaire chief executive lashed out at analysts during a wide-ranging earnings call Wednesday, turning the session into what Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas called “the most unusual call I have experienced in 20 years on the sell-side.”

Tesla’s stock closed down 5.55 percent Thursday to $284.45.

The call started out normal enough before taking an unexpected turn after half an hour of questioning. Here are the moments that made it a most unusual earnings call.

[Tesla misses Model 3 production goal — again]

1. “Bonehead questions are not cool.”

After answering dense, dry questions from Wall Street analysts, Musk appeared to reach his limit midway through the call. During an exchange between an analyst and Deepak Ahuja, Tesla’s chief financial officer, about capital expenditures, Musk interrupted suddenly.

“Excuse me,” he said. “Next. Boring, bonehead questions are not cool. Next?”

Friday morning, Musk defended portions of his behavior on Twitter, arguing that the analyst’s question was “boneheaded” because it had been covered by a quarterly newsletter published on Tesla’s website ahead of the call. Musk also said he dismissed some questioners because of differences in business philosophy.

2. “They’re killing me!”

Minutes later, when another analyst asked Musk about Model 3 reservations, the CEO paused — injecting an awkward situation with even more tension — before snapping back again.

“We’re going to go to YouTube,” Musk retorted. “Sorry. These questions are so dry. They’re killing me!”

The Q&A was handed over to Galileo Russell, host of HyperChange TV, a YouTube platform with more than 9,000 subscribers and videos with titles such as “Why I Bought Tesla Today At $255/Share.”

Over the next 20 minutes (an eternity in earnings call time) Musk repeatedly praised Russell and thanked him for asking interesting questions. By the end of their lengthy exchange, Russell had asked 12 questions.

Musk also on Friday defended his dismissal of the Model 3 question on Twitter, pointing out that even when Tesla reaches peak production it will take several years to satisfy customer demand.

3. “It’s really outrageous!”

Musk has railed against the media before, even during earnings calls. This time he was more forceful, launching into an unexpected tirade in which he accused journalists of putting drivers’ lives at risk by unfairly reporting on autonomous-vehicle crashes.

So they write inflammatory headlines that are fundamentally misleading to the readers. It’s really outrageous. And this will be true, even if electric cars were — sorry — if autonomous cars were 10 times safer, so if instead of 1 million deaths you had 100,000 deaths. There is still going to be people who will still sue and say, “Hey, you’re responsible for the death here.” And it’s like, well, the 90 percent of people who didn’t die are not suing. They’re not dead. They’re still alive. They just don’t know it.

And, yeah, it’s really incredibly irresponsible of any journalists with integrity to write an article that would lead people to believe that autonomy is less safe. Because people might actually turn it off and then die. So anyway, I’m really upset by this.

4. “I think moats are lame.”

Asked why Musk would want to allow other car brands to use Tesla’s Supercharger stations across the country instead of creating a “moat” around their infrastructure, Musk answered <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvoTE00AdRA" target="_blank">like a battle-hardened general from a live-action role-playing game</a>.

“I think moats are lame,” he said, adding, “If your only defense against invading armies is a moat, you will not last long.”

5. “Please sell our stock.”

It’s not every day you hear a CEO goading someone into selling their company’s stock. But that’s exactly Musk did Wednesday after telling an analyst he had “no interest in satisfying the desires of day traders.”

“I couldn’t care less,” he added. “Please sell our stock and don’t buy it.”

Musk continued: “I mean, I think that if people are concerned about volatility, they should definitely not buy our stock. I’m not here to convince you to buy our stock. Do not buy it if volatility is scary. There you go.”

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2018/05/02/the-militarys-latest-plan-to-save-lives-on-the-battlefield-building-driverless-vehicles/?utm_term=.b2421ae0d3c4">The military’s latest plan to save lives on the battlefield: Building driverless vehicles</a>

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2018/04/26/ford-has-been-synonymous-with-cars-for-more-than-a-century-thats-about-to-change/?utm_term=.c0a91fdcff42">Say goodbye to the Ford sedan</a>

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2018/04/25/want-to-work-for-ikea-your-next-job-interview-could-be-conducted-by-a-russian-robot/?utm_term=.2b7141b0be14">Want to work for Ikea? Your next job interview could be conducted by a Russian robot.</a>

American University, BA in law and society

Columbia University, MS in journalism

Peter Holley was a technology reporter at The Washington Post. He left The Post in December 2019.

Peter Holley

The Washington Post

‘Boring, bonehead questions are not cool’: Elon Musk lashes out at analysts during a wide-ranging earnings call

Help Desk

Artificial Intelligence

Internet Culture

Space

Tech Policy

Tech

prism://prism.query/tt-with-section-or-one-tag-and-exclusions,/technology/innovations,85008,$3,$4,$5,$6/?limit=20

Exploring advancements in technology, transportation, education, health care, finance and energy.

prism://prism.query/tt-and-utility-tag-with-transparency-labels,85008,explanatory,News,Analysis,Perspective,Review,Opinion,Advice/?limit=5&offset=2

prism://prism.query/site-articles-only,/technology&limit=20