The FUD Before Tesla’s AI Day Is Here

Republished By Plato

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I received a Twitter message from a friend who is a fellow Tesla shareholder and she told me that she received a call from the financial company managing her mutual and retirement fund. They told her that Tesla is undergoing “a serious investigation” and that she may not want to lose her money. She also told me that the flood of attacks on Tesla and its AI is crazy — especially since Tesla is about to hold its AI Day (in a few days at the time I am writing this).

With her consent, I shared her message on Twitter (keeping her anonymous to protect her privacy), and a few others shared similar messages. Now, I’m not a financial advisor, but I am keeping my shares, and no, my bank didn’t advise me to sell, but I have a tiny number of shares. It seems as though some advisors are panicking in light of a new investigation into Tesla by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Me too. There are more than 6500auto accidents each year involving emergency vehicles. And in 3 years, Tesla’s were in 11 of them? Give me break… https://t.co/V6lV55KlnQ

— RigaRunner (@N97RJ) August 17, 2021

I suspect this is pure FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) used to manipulate emotions, especially those of stock owners, and those few advisors who are telling folks to sell are probably clueless about the details surrounding most of the accidents that the investigation is looking into. They probably just read the scary headlines about driverless Teslas on Autopilot and don’t follow up or dig deeper since the majority of the media doesn’t follow up or dig deeper. I believe that’s their thinking, anyways — I don’t have any direct or indirect insight into it.

“Please sell our stock and don’t buy it. I mean, I think that if people are concerned about volatility, they should definitely not buy our stock. I’m not here to convince you to buy our stock. Do not buy it if volatility is scary. There you go.” – @elonmusk on 5/2/18

— Shawn Wylde (@AfMusk) August 17, 2021

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: Every time Tesla has some type of event, there’s always a lot of FUD. Whether it’s an earnings call, an unveiling of something — there’s always anti-Tesla FUD just days before the event. Also, incidentally, the stock usually tumbles a bit when the event is over — even if the news is good! I’m no charter or expert, but I am observant, and this has been happening for years — often to the surprise of Tesla fans who are blown away by the inspiring news.

Stocks aside, for anyone who cares about the company’s success but not the stock, I think it’s important in these periods of FUD and panic to keep in mind that Tesla isn’t going to go bankrupt anytime soon, Elon isn’t a fraudster, he’s not a serial killer either, and the sky isn’t falling.

Also, as the tweet above reminds people, if you do happen to be an investor and don’t like the FUD cycles and volatility that have been associated with Tesla for many years, Elon Musk has even recommended that you not buy Tesla [TSLA] stock. See if you can find another CEO of a major company who has said such a thing.

One good thing from all of this is that a clean energy company that cares about our planet is getting a lot of attention. The more attention, the more people are going to consider and buy clean technologies. “All news is good news,” as they used to say.

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