published May 2, 2018, 6:10:18 PM, by Brian Eckhouse
(Bloomberg) —

Tesla earnings calls are unlike other companies’ — CEO Elon Musk freelances, rambles and mumbles — but this was a whole different experience.

Right before the call, he sent three tweets — about SpaceX, a link to a positive summary recapping 1Q results, and a link to a “Woke Frisbee” on his Instagram page. He even sounded chipper as the call started.

But within 35 minutes, it had devolved. Musk tired of finance questions, so he cut off an analyst this way: “We’re going to YouTube. These questions are so dry. They’re killing me.”

Tesla’s stock immediately began falling as he handed over questions to YouTuber @Gfilche for several minutes.

Musk later called media stories questioning the safety of autonomy “outrageous.” Then this: If “irresponsible” journalists write about the dangers of autonomous vehicles, “people might actually turn it off and then die.”

Later, he said moats are lame, that his company “is a leaky sieve of information” and that Tesla’s pickup is going to be great: “We have way more cool things than we know what to do.”

But near the end he may have topped himself: “If people are concerned about volatility, they should not buy our stock.”

For more analysis on Tesla’s earnings, click here for our TOPLive blog.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Eckhouse in New York at beckhouse@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anny Kuo at akuo1@bloomberg.net Tal Barak Harif
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