• Elon Musk may have become bored with the solved problem of manufacturing EVs.
• Musk's focus shifted from EVs to AI, robotics, and politics, leaving Tesla's core business untethered.
• A Tim Cook-style CEO could take Tesla operations to new heights, similar to Apple's post-Jobs success.

This "open letter" might be fake. It could be real. I don't know, but it reminded me of a column I've been wanting to write.

The letter is purportedly from disgruntled Tesla employees who want Elon Musk to stop being CEO so the company can go back to selling lots of electric vehicles. His DOGE bender has damaged Tesla's brand so much that he should step back, according to this alleged letter.

Even if this is a made-up missive, it raises an interesting question: Why would the CEO of the world's most valuable car company wander off for months to pursue political dalliances when the electric vehicle battle has just entered a new, crucial stage?

The answer may be simple: Elon is bored making cars.

He spent the last decade working his butt off to pull Tesla out of near bankruptcy and turn it into the dominant EV company of the Western world. There was a lot of innovation and many sleepless nights.

But now, one could argue, EV manufacturing is a solved problem. Tesla has gigafactories and other giant facilities around the world churning out hundreds of thousands of vehicles a year. The next stages are all about refining these processes and scaling efficient production — and, yes, persuading people to buy the products.

This isn't really Elon's jam. He likes to invent new things, not tweak existing products. This story from The Information put it well when it described why Musk rejected his lieutenants' advice to pursue a cheaper EV, and instead went all-in on artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, and robots.

This quote, from a person familiar with the situation, stands out: "I think Elon is just uninterested in making a [Volkswagen] Golf-type car. It just doesn't wake him up in the morning. He was, 'Let somebody else do it.'"

What type of new CEO would Tesla need?

So, who else would do this at Tesla, and what would this mean for the future of the company?

If Musk were to relinquish the CEO role, I think he'd need a Tim Cook-style executive to take the reins.

Cook is a supply chain genius who took over Apple when Steve Jobs died in 2011. At that time, I was a tech reporter at Reuters, and many experts were predicting doom for Apple.

Like Musk, Jobs was a mercurial tech founder who was loved for his visionary inventions and feared for his brutal approach to people management. (Jobs also pulled Apple back from near bankruptcy.)

In 2011, investors just couldn't imagine how Apple might continue to thrive without this creative driving force.

In one way, they were right to worry. Since then, Apple has not launched many truly new and inventive products. The car project failed. The Vision Pro goggles have stumbled out of the gate (and followed Meta's Oculus anyway).

In another way, though, Cook has taken Apple to new heights that were unimaginable 14 years ago. And he did it by taking another solved problem — smartphones — and perfecting it over and over and over again.

Since 2011, Cook has obsessed over minute iPhone product tweaks, redesigned the chips in-house, switched out and negotiated (hard!) with hundreds of suppliers, and carefully evolved one of the world's largest supply chains in the face of pandemics and dictators.

I asked Apple for comment on Monday and didn't get a response. I also emailed Elon and asked him if he wants to spend the next 10-plus years of his life tweaking Tesla's EV operations. I didn't get a reply, not even a poop emoji.

Apple's now a $3 trillion company

The value Cook has added since 2011 is astounding. Late that year, the company was worth about $350 billion. Apple is now valued at $3.2 trillion.

By iterating intensely on an existing product — grinding costs lower and efficiency higher — this CEO has generated almost $3 trillion in shareholder value, and made Apple the most valuable company in the world.

When Apple became the first company to pass $1 trillion in 2018, I edited a story by Mark Gurman that marked this moment. The piece quoted Tony Fadell, who helped Steve Jobs create the iPod. Instead of harping on about Jobs's legacy, Fadell focused mostly on Cook.

"Tim and team have done a masterful job of continuing to develop Steve's vision while bringing operational and environmental excellence to every part of Apple's business to achieve their unheard-of scale while continuing to grow unprecedented margins in the consumer electronics business," Fadell said.

Tesla's '2011 Apple' moment

I think Tesla could be at a "2011 Apple" moment right now.

Musk hasn't died, but his passion for EV manufacturing may have faded.

Like Apple back then, many Tesla investors can't image the company without Musk as CEO. But he could, in theory, step back from day-to-day leadership duties while continuing to work on newer, cutting-edge projects in the background, such as the Optimus robot.

Meanwhile, a Cook-style executive could take the CEO role and start hammering away at the solved problem of Tesla's core EV business. This could also reduce the brand damage done by Musk's political foray.

Apple shows what's possible in a scenario like this: Almost $3 trillion in market value created from basically doing an existing thing better and better.  

I asked Grace Kay, Business Insider's hot-shot Tesla reporter, who might be a good candidate to replace Musk as CEO. She suggested Omead Afshar, a low-profile, mild-mannered executive who once ran a major Tesla manufacturing operation and has become a trusted confidant of the visionary founder.

Sound familiar?

If you want to know more about Omead Afshar, check out Grace's amazing profile. 

• Tesla registered over 220 test drivers and 100 vehicles for an autonomous driving permit in California.
• It registered 59 drivers and 14 vehicles in a previous application from 2022.
• Obtaining the permit doesn't mean Tesla will use it. The last time it reported doing so was in 2019.

Tesla has ramped up its autonomous testing capabilities in California.

In December, the electric-car maker registered 224 in-house test drivers and 104 vehicles in the state for an autonomous testing permit, according to public records viewed by Business Insider.

It's an uptick from 2022, the last time Tesla filed for the permit. That year, it registered 59 drivers and 14 vehicles.

The surge in test drivers comes as the clock ticks for the company to fulfill Elon Musk's promise of bringing a Robotaxi to market within the year. Tesla's stock has continued to drop, and is down more than 40% year-to-date over lackluster sales numbers and Musk's polarizing role in the US government, after hitting an all-time high after Donald Trump's election victory.

The permit, first granted in 2015, allows the carmaker to conduct what's known as level 3 testing, which lets the autonomous driving software assume a greater degree of control over the vehicle. It still requires a licensed driver to monitor the vehicle and take over when needed, but testing it is one of the first steps Tesla must take to roll out its self-driving technology in the state.

Obtaining the permit doesn't necessarily mean Tesla will use it. Companies are required to report usage — measured by mileage and the number of times human test drivers take control of the vehicles — every year.

Tesla hasn't reported using the permit since 2019. The company has long maintained that it conducts level 2 testing, focused on unreleased versions of the driver-assist software already available in customers' cars.

Tesla submitted paperwork for the registrations to the California Department of Motor Vehicles in December. The registrations, which cost about $8,700 in total, are in effect for 2025 and 2026. The permit can be renewed every two years.

In November, after some test drivers told Business Insider they pushed Tesla's self-driving software to its limit, the California DMV asked Tesla whether its testing aligned with what the state permit allows, public records show.

In an emailed response to the DMV, Tesla's director of field reliability said the company was testing driver-assist software similar to what Tesla customers already have in their vehicles. Test drivers underwent "rigorous" training, per the email, including when to intervene in "unsafe" situations and when to avoid taking over during "safe but undesired vehicle behaviors" like missing a turn or frequently changing lanes.

A spokesperson for Tesla did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

Musk has said the carmaker plans to roll out robotaxis in some California cities by the end of the year. Bloomberg reported in February that the company had filed for a permit with the California Public Utilities Commission, which would allow the carmaker to operate an autonomous ride-hailing service.

The Tesla CEO has repeatedly emphasized that much of Tesla's value revolves around its self-driving technology. Tesla's stock has plummeted in recent weeks, and JP Morgan analysts said in a note to investors on Wednesday that the company had lost so much value since Musk took on his advisory role in government that they couldn't find another comparable drop in automotive history.

Even Tesla bull Dan Ives sounded an alarm: The analyst wrote on Tuesday that Tesla and Musk are facing a "moment of truth" as investors grow weary of Musk's focus on DOGE.

Tesla's dropping value puts pressure on the company's Robotaxi efforts. Ives said he puts "90%" of Tesla's value over the next few years on the company's autonomous technology and humanoid robot. Tesla has yet to file for a permit that would allow it to test the vehicle without a safety driver — a milestone that self-driving car startups Waymo and Zoox hit in 2020 and 2023, respectively.

The company has been on a hiring spree for test drivers across the country. In February, it hosted hiring events in Las Vegas and Dallas, according to a recruiter's post on X. It also posted openings for test drivers in several towns in Texas, Nevada, and California.

In Austin, Tesla has met with members of the city's autonomous vehicle taskforce and discussed robotaxi training for local emergency responders, according to emails viewed by Business Insider. Unlike California, Texas has few regulations around autonomous driving; vehicles are only required to be insured and capable of obeying traffic laws.

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