Getting more cars on the road would help Tesla maintain its dominant U.S. market share in "turbulent times" and give it access to precious usage data needed to train the artificial intelligence models behind its self-driving technology.
The billionaire believes full self-driving (FSD) could one day account for most of Tesla's value and give it a cushion rivals lack as they try to turn their EV operations profitable.
"They're not an AI play the way Microsoft or Nvidia is an AI play," said Thomas Martin, senior portfolio manager at Tesla shareholder Globalt Investments.
"They're more of an AI play the way a regular business is an AI play, except that this race to full self-driving has always been an AI issue, and it's always been based on data.
Wells Fargo analysts said FSD's adoption could be impeded by its price, which Musk said was low.
Persons:
Elon, Musk, Tesla, Gene Munster, Lucy Nicholson, John Tomlinson, Thomas Martin, it's, Wells, Peter Henderson, Aditya Soni, Akash Sriram, Dhanya Ann Thoppil
Organizations:
Tesla, Deepwater Asset Management, REUTERS, Global, Research, Beta, Microsoft, Nvidia, Globalt Investments, Dojo, Thomson
Locations:
Los Angeles , California, U.S