Elon Musk says that Tesla's market cap is directly tied to whether it solves autonomous driving

Tesla CEO Elon Musk thinks the automaker's marketplace capitalization is straight tied to whether oregon not the automaker is capable to lick autonomous driving, the billionaire told LVMH scion Antoine Arnault Friday.

Musk was speaking astatine Paris' VivaTech innovation conference. The younger Arnault ribbed Musk astir Tesla's $827 cardinal marketplace cap, noting it dwarfed the storied luxury conglomerate's valuation.

The Tesla CEO responded and suggested helium had small penetration into banal terms movements. "Valuations are a unusual thing," Musk said. "Sometimes I've said, 'Hey, I deliberation the banal terms is excessively precocious astatine Tesla,' and past the banal terms goes up. I'm like, 'okay.'"

But Musk besides suggested Tesla's marketplace headdress was tied to whether oregon not the institution could cleanable autonomous driving technology.

"Really the worth of the institution is chiefly connected the ground of autonomy," Musk said. "If you look astatine our full conveyance output, it's astir 2 cardinal vehicles this twelvemonth oregon thing similar that. But that's inactive lone 2% of full conveyance production."

"The imaginable for autonomy is that the worth of autonomy is truthful high, that adjacent even if you person a discount, a percent probability of autonomy happening, that is truthful incredibly valuable," the CEO continued. He besides reiterated the thought of Tesla owners turning their vehicles into a fleet of self-driving robotaxis, an thought which helium erstwhile said would beryllium implemented by 2020.

Musk has said for respective years that Tesla is adjacent to solving autonomous driving, but the company's cars inactive lone supply precocious operator assistance features.