Elon Musk Finally Admits His Hubris Is a Problem

Elon Musk — CEO, pronatalist and seemingly limitless font of Hot Takes — does not often admit it when he’s made a mistake. That isn’t to say that he doesn’t ever provide hints at his true feelings on the matter; remember when Twitter sued him to prevent him from walking back on his commitment to buying the social network in question? But a full-on Arrested Development-style “I’ve made a huge mistake” admission from Musk is a rare occurrence.

That makes Musk’s recent comments on the oft-delayed Tesla Cybertruck that much more revealing. As Reuters revealed in an article on a recent Tesla earnings call, Musk was surprisingly candid about the bumpy road the Cybertruck has taken on its way to market. “We dug our own grave with Cybertruck,” Musk said. Musk went on to state that he wanted to “temper expectations” when it came to the distinctively-designed electric truck.

It’s worth mentioning here that Musk is someone who’s been able to speak warmly about SpaceX rocket tests that failed spectacularly — though, in his defense, he’s far from the first tech magnate to make the case for the benefits of failure as a learning experience.

In the same call, Musk had some additional information on the Cybertruck — specifically, that deliveries would begin on November 30, and that pricing for the Cybertruck would be available on that date as well. Reuters’s reporting on the Cybertruck suggests that pricing will be higher than the starting price of less than $40,000 that Tesla previously cited in 2019.

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Lowered expectations or not, the Cybertruck being out in the world will end one of the automotive world’s longest waits. That said, it might also take a while for the automaker to fill existing orders for the truck; Road & Track reports that Tesla has one million reservations for the Cybertruck, with the capacity to build 125,000 in 2024. We’ll know more at the tail end of November.