Elon Musk raises eyebrows with surprising comments about new Tesla ventures: 'Will be agonizingly slow'

Tesla CEO Elon Musk poured cold water on the hype around two of the company's upcoming projects, saying that the production schedule would be downright glacial for both. 

What's happening?

According to Reuters, Musk took to his platform X to discuss production times for the Cybercab and Optimus, the humanoid robot that he's been touting as a massive part of the company's future, tempering expectations for the speed of production on both.  

"For Cybercab and Optimus, almost everything is new, so the early production rate will be agonizingly slow, but eventually end up being insanely fast," Musk said. 

Why is production time important?

2025 was an incredibly rough year financially for Tesla. Sales of its electric vehicles were down in every quarter worldwide compared to 2024, as Musk's political leanings and a lack of new versions of the company's most popular cars opened the door for other brands to threaten Tesla's position at the top of the EV race. 

In the United States, companies like Rivian and traditional automakers like Volkswagen, Ford, and GM carved off pieces, while Chinese automaker BYD asserted a strong global foothold and surpassed Tesla in many global markets. 

Musk has framed those losses as necessary as the company shifts focus toward AI and driverless cars, and both Optimus and the Cybercab are meant to be the beginning of the company's new era. 

However, if the rollout of both products is too slow, it would be another massive hit to a consumer base that is already frustrated with the state of the company. 

What's being done about Tesla's rollout times? 

Unfortunately, per Musk, there's not much that can be done about speeding up the process in the early days. When dealing with an entirely new product with a ton of new parts and features, initial manufacturing takes longer as the system works out bugs and potential issues. 

On top of that, Tesla's self-driving systems may not be as ready to go in a car without a steering wheel or pedals as the company would want. While the company has begun rolling out vehicles without a safety monitor in Austin, Texas, they have continued to struggle with the system's performance on real streets with real hazards. 

In other words, consumers could be waiting quite a while yet before either Optimus or the Cybercab is fully commercially available to the public.

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