Musk Has Been Running Tesla Blind
And he is doing it on purpose.
We all know that Musk can’t get enough of automation. From Optimus to self-driving cars, Musk wants to let his robots take over. But, as it turns out, Musk has been doing a similar thing with his role as Tesla CEO, except rather than replacing himself with AI, he has pulled more of a “Jesus take the wheel” move. You see, the Washington Post recently published an interview with one of Musk’s old Tesla executives, who let slip that Musk wanted to spend as little time working with Tesla as possible. That might sound innocuous, but to anyone who understands business management and business culture, that is horrific. It means Musk is effectively asleep at the wheel and allowing Tesla to drive itself off a cliff. But this is not an accident. When you look at this in the context of what Tesla has become, it makes complete sense and, in my opinion, proves that Musk is doing this on purpose.
The Interview
Let’s start with this Washington Post interview with Jon McNeill, who was Tesla’s president of global sales, delivery and service for three years. In the interview, McNeill stated that “when I asked [Musk] what success looked like, he said, ‘Success is getting me down to one day a week at Tesla so I can get back to my first love, which is rockets.’” This wasn’t a one-time claim. McNeill alleged this was Musk’s main motive throughout his time at Tesla, from 2015 to 2018. That is in stark contrast to the hilariously hollow workaholic mythos Musk has built up around himself in recent years.
His attitude likely hasn’t changed either. Recently, angry shareholders demanded that Musk spend more time at Tesla, and Musk has threatened to walk from Tesla multiple times. So, it is safe to assume that this one-day-a-week goal is still very much relevant.
This revelation alone destroys much of the cult-like mythos Musk has created. But it has far deeper implications when you take the reality of Tesla into context.
Tesla’s Micro Reality
Tesla is on a historic downward spiral and shows no signs of letting up.
In a previous article, I covered how Tesla’s annual profit fell 46% in 2025 compared to 2024, with its Q4 2025 profits down an astronomical 61% compared to Q4 2024. In fact, regulatory emissions credits accounted for $542 million of Tesla’s $840 million profit in Q4 2025; however, this revenue stream has now functionally collapsed for Tesla (read more here). The only “good” news was that between 2024 and 2025, Tesla’s energy storage revenue increased by 26.5%. At the time, I predicted that this growth would end soon, given that far better products were entering the market. And it turns out I was right! Recent reporting found that in Q1 2026, Tesla’s energy storage installations totalled just 8.8 GWh, an astonishing 39% short of its 14.4 GWh goal, meaning installations actually shrank 15% year-over-year. On top of that, it found that Tesla failed to meet its already low vehicle deliveries projection by 4%, heavily suggesting that the catastrophic sales slump has continued.
So yeah, Tesla isn’t doing so well! Its core business, where it generates the vast majority of its revenue and profit, is collapsing. Why? You could point to the understandable backlash to Musk’s disastrous political actions. But there is a reasonable argument that, in fact, this has been caused by Musk taking Tesla in a totally different direction and him functionally betting the entire company on this hard pivot.
Tesla’s Macro Reality
This is the broader picture of Tesla. Musk is turning Tesla from an EV pioneer into a “leader” in humanoid robots and robotaxis. I have covered this topic before, but at Musk’s behest, Tesla has effectively dropped all its EV development projects to focus entirely on the self-driving Cybercab and the robot Optimus. Because of this, Tesla’s ailing EV business cannot be recovered, and the robot and robotaxi ventures are the only viable route to sustainability or growth. In effect, Musk has bet the entire future of Tesla on these projects paying off.
Even if the underlying technology and concepts are solid, this pivot is a gargantuan, highly risky bet that explains much of the granular downward spiral we are seeing with Tesla. But here is the thing: Tesla executives and insiders have known that the concepts and technology underlying this shift are non-starters.
Optimus
Take Chris Walti, the original lead on the Optimus robot project. In a previous article, I covered how Walti has publicly stated that humanoid robots simply don’t make sense and that the humanoid form factor isn’t “a useful form factor.” Walti shares the same view as other robotics experts, such as Brad Porter (former VP of Robotics at Amazon), Gartneranalysis and Ken Goldberg (UC Berkeley roboticist), that the human form factor is highly inefficient. For example, why ask an expensive, slow and difficult-to-set-up general-purpose humanoid robot to use a vacuum when you could use a cheaper and more reliable specialised robot like a Roomba to complete the same task? As such, Walti likely saw Tesla’s Optimus as more of a tech demonstrator than an actual useful product.
