Tesla CEO Elon Musk Draws Parallel Between Netflix's Decision To Focus On Streaming Over Renting DVDs To EV Maker Doubling Down On Vehicle Autonomy

Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk on Friday drew a parallel between video streaming platform Netflix doubling down on streaming over DVD renting in 2011 to the EV maker doubling efforts on vehicle autonomy.

What Happened: In 2011, Netflix attempted to split its DVD rental business from its online streaming into a separate website called Qwikster. The plan, however, was eventually scrapped owing to consumer and shareholder protests.

However, streaming has now indeed taken over DVDs, an X user noted in a post on Friday. “Now, apply this logic to Tesla,” Musk wrote to the user, drawing a parallel between Netflix’s 13-year-old decision to focus on streaming and Tesla’s own decision to focus all efforts on vehicle autonomy and hinting that autonomous vehicles will trump human-driven ones in the future.

Why It Matters: Tesla is currently faced with dropping share value after it decided to focus all its efforts and resources on vehicle autonomy. However, the CEO said last month that doubling down on autonomy is a “blindingly obvious move” for the company with everything else like “variations on a horse carriage.” The company intends to unveil its robotaxi product on Aug. 8, and Musk is optimistic that autonomous vehicles will be the future for the automotive industry.

"Even if I got kidnapped by aliens tomorrow, Tesla will solve autonomy, maybe a little slower, but it would solve autonomy for vehicles at least," Musk said during the company’s first-quarter earnings call last month. "If somebody doesn't believe Tesla is going to solve autonomy, I think they should not be an investor in the company."

Netflix, meanwhile, subsequently ended its DVD-renting business last year after the business shrank and paved the way for streaming. The company shipped its final discs on September 29.

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