Is Tesla making a phone? What Elon Musk has said

The thought of Tesla making a telephone has been floating astir for years and it’s present resurfaced pursuing comments made by CEO Elon Musk. 

Musk held a drawstring of October municipality hallway talks successful Pennsylvania arsenic portion of his enactment for Donald Trump’s presidency bid, and the taxable of a telephone was raised astatine the October 18 event. 

“That’s a batch of work. The thought of making a telephone makes maine privation to die,” Musk said. “But if we person to marque a phone, we will, but we volition aspire not to marque a phone.”

Musk says the reasoning for making a telephone would hinge connected his assertion the likes of Google and Apple person an overbearing approach.  

“The assorted companies, Apple and Google Android, person to marque definite they don’t person a dense manus successful the App Store and whatnot, oregon they volition make a forcing relation for determination to beryllium a competitor.”

Musk has made akin statements successful the past. In November 2023, during a New York Times event, Musk said “if there’s an indispensable request to marque a phone, I’ll marque a phone, but I’ve got a batch of food to fry.”

These rumours resurfaced successful June 2024, pursuing the announcement of Apple Intelligence. 

“If Apple really integrates woke nanny AI spyware into their OS, we mightiness request to bash that,” Musk wrote connected X successful reply to 1 idiosyncratic who said the tech magnate should make a “Grok telephone with Grok integrated.”

Grok is the AI chatbot of the X societal media platform. Musk is astatine hazard of veering into hypocritical territory here, arsenic X users’ posts are harvested arsenic grooming information for the chatbot, extracurricular Europe, unless they opt out. 

“Either halt this creepy spyware oregon each Apple devices volition beryllium banned from the premises of my companies,” Musk posted successful effect to Tim Cook’s ain X station connected June 10 regarding the motorboat of Apple Intelligence.

Musk’s proposition helium mightiness archer 1 of his companies to travel up with a telephone is portion of his diagnostic bravado-heavy reactions to developments helium does not similar successful tech. 

From different exertion executive, claims similar these could usually beryllium dismissed. But a not dissimilar absorption led to Musk’s £41 cardinal acquisition of Twitter, since rebranded arsenic X. 

Musk reportedly planned to backmost retired of that deal, earlier realising doing truthful would unfastened him up to some a $1 cardinal interest and the imaginable to beryllium sued for a acold greater fig successful different losses. 

Is a telephone with Tesla oregon X branding feasible? The task would astir apt usage the AOSP framework, which is the basal skeleton of Android minus galore of the parts that marque it appealing, including the Google Play app store and Google’s suite of apps. It’s utilized successful Amazon’s Fire tablets, for example, and the Meta Quest headsets. This would permission the Tesla oregon X squad with the work of creating an app store, halfway apps for email, web browsing and truthful on. And for designing the software’s interface. 

Losing each that Google gloss, which separates an AOSP-based telephone from a full-on Google Android one, is simply a large portion of what turned Huawei phones from immoderate of the champion astir successful 2019, to devices hard to urge to astir anyone successful the UK. 

There’s a cautionary communicative from the past present too. Amazon attempted to interruption into the smartphone marketplace successful 2014, with the Fire Phone. It was based connected AOSP, and had 4 face-tracking cameras connected the beforehand to fto it nutrient a 3D-like effect erstwhile you looked astatine it from antithetic angles. 

The motorboat was a disaster, contempt Amazon having already made Android tablets for 3 years astatine this point. It reportedly sold arsenic fewer arsenic 35,000 units, and Amazon had upwards of £60 cardinal successful unsold banal 2 years aft its motorboat successful 2016. 

One of the cardinal factors successful its nonaccomplishment was the constricted bundle room disposable done the Amazon Appstore, a disapproval that tin inactive beryllium levelled astatine it contiguous arsenic the app portal for Amazon’s Fire tablets. 

A phone’s costs aren’t constricted to its manufacturing either arsenic immense amounts of wealth are required to marketplace phones and different gadgets. Apple and Samsung some walk billions of dollars a twelvemonth connected marketing.

Meanwhile, Musk has stripped backmost the unit of X since its acquisition to trim operating costs, astatine 1 constituent by 80%. It’s not hard to recognize wherefore Musk is truthful reluctant to perpetrate to a Tesla oregon X telephone adjacent though immoderate fans look truthful keen connected making it a reality.