During Tesla’s third-quarter earnings call, Elon Musk once again reminded everyone that his endgame is to become a comic book supervillain.
Musk told investors that unless they give him a $1 trillion compensation package, he might walk away. He reasons that he needs enough control to feel “comfortable” building what he literally called a “robot army.”
“If we build this robot army, do I have at least a strong influence over this robot army?” Musk asked, as if pitching himself as Doctor Doom in the next Avengers movie. Possibly picking up on the weird vibe of that statement, he added, “Not control, but a strong influence… I don’t feel comfortable building that robot army unless I have a strong influence.”
This isn’t the first time Musk has used “army” to describe Tesla’s Optimus robots, the humanoid machines originally marketed to do boring human stuff, like folding laundry. But now, Elon’s own language has evolved from a C-3PO assistant to something that sounds like the mechanized legion commanded by a billionaire.
Elon Musk Sounds Like He Wants to Be Doctor Doom?
Three and a half years after the debut of Tesla’s Optimus robots, the company has failed to hit its production targets. Musk once claimed they’d make 100,000 Optimuses per month by next year. So far, they’ve barely managed a few prototypes that can walk without falling over.
They would s**t themselves, too, if they could. But that hasn’t stopped him from saying that Optimus will eventually account for 80 percent of Tesla’s value—possibly more—if he uses them to invade a nation.
The company’s actual business—selling cars—has fallen flat on its face. Tesla missed Wall Street estimates again this quarter, with an overall downturn almost perfectly aligning with Elon’s disastrous foray into far-right politics.
Who would’ve thought that people on the political left, who championed electric cars for decades while the right kept pushing traditional gasoline-powered vehicles, would be turned off by Musk? Don’t let anyone ever tell you Elon Musk is a business genius.
It’s too early to tell precisely what Elon’s intentions are with his self-described robot army. He might be positioning himself as the Steve Jobs of home robotics. Or maybe he’s lining things up so he can become the human leader of a—as he put it—“robot army.”
Both are terrifying thoughts.
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