That being said, every time there was some event or report or earning that I thought the tesla stans would finally see as negative and thus stock drop, I've been wrong. I guess the sales drops for 1 quarter actually effected the stock some time earlier this year.
Everyone in SV that isn't filled with Musk hate always says "Don't bet against Elon". And they've been proven right many times, no matter how much people don't want to admit it. Maybe this time is different, nothing lasts forever. For any standard CEO, the NASA news, the starship delays, the tesla sales, the embarassing tesla demos... people would be very reasonable to predict failure and even full-blown implosion. But I for one won't be taking out any short positions any time soon.
Specifically for tesla, I do think it's very possible that this is top revenue quarter for at least year, if not forever. But I just can't make myself completely discount the possibility of them succeeding wildly with robotics. He and his team have pretty impressive experience in cross-sections no one else has. They've built complicated physical things AND they've developed and deployed complicated controls/automation technology (FSD, Falcon/Starship) AND they've done so profitably, at least at times. Just the supply chain expertise is top tier, especially important with China shit. A successful robotics company will have to have all of that, and Tesla does. That being said, I don't understand how you can say stuff as stupid as, paraphrasing, "Having more sensors (lidar) can actually make things worse" and lead companies who must have controls knowledge/expertise as a core competency. I can only assume he knows he's full of shit and is playing to his loyalists who will eat it up as a valid critique of other self-driving efforts.