Musk: "I Thought Tesla Stock Price Was Too High, But It Went Up Even More"

"Tesla Market Cap Will Be Determined by Autonomous Driving Technology"

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, stated that Tesla's future market capitalization will be determined by its autonomous driving technology capabilities.

According to foreign media such as CNBC, Musk attended the VivaTech event held in Paris, France on the 16th (local time) and said, "Tesla's market capitalization is directly linked to solving the autonomous driving issue." VivaTech is the largest startup event in Europe where promising startups from around the world meet and communicate with European investors.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla. [Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

On that day, when asked about Tesla's market capitalization, Musk said, "I have little insight into Tesla's stock price fluctuations," and added, "The corporate valuation (stock price relative to performance) that people think of sometimes shows strange movements." He further explained, "There was a time when I thought Tesla's stock price was too high compared to its corporate value, yet the stock price went even higher from there."

He said, "Tesla's true value is based on autonomous driving technology," and "Tesla produced nearly 2 million vehicles this year, but this still accounts for only 2% of the total vehicle production." This seems to emphasize the importance of autonomous driving technology over electric vehicle sales.

Musk stated, "The potential of autonomous driving technology is so valuable that even if the probability of realization decreases slightly, it still holds significant value," and "Tesla's future market capitalization will ultimately be determined by its autonomous driving technology capabilities."

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla. [Image source=AP Yonhap News]

In this regard, CNBC pointed out that although Musk has emphasized Tesla's autonomous driving technology for years, it still only offers advanced driver assistance features.

This is not the first time Musk has emphasized autonomous driving technology. At the shareholders' meeting held at the Texas Gigafactory on the 16th of last month, he predicted, "The average usage time of cars currently is 10 to 12 hours per week, but if full autonomous driving is realized, vehicle utilization will increase fivefold and the usage value will greatly improve." He also said, "The full autonomous driving implementation function is 10 times safer than human driving."