Elon Musk cosplays successfully as CEO of a normal automotive company

Honestly, who needs reality TV when you have Tesla?

While Elon Musk spent most of the third quarter shooting himself in the foot, Tesla managed to make a profit (quarterly)! I love this show! I would only like to have more details on plot B regarding people who were quietly working behind the scenes to make this happen, while Musk was getting ready with Azealia Banks.

Anyway, the last profitable quarter of Tesla was in 2016, but that quarter, Tesla achieved a turnover of $ 6.8 billion (almost and a profit of $ 311 million, the biggest quarterly profit ever recorded. The company has never made an annual profit, but Model 3 is now popular enough for us to see more often. Tesla will also leverage Chinese and European demand by taking orders (and, hopefully, increasing revenues) in these markets by next year, according to the earnings conference call. And the record shows that Musk was right, at least for now, not to need to raise capital, since Tesla currently has nearly $ 3 billion in bank. But he also said on the call for results that this could change.

Even watching Musk's cosplay as a normal CEO when calling the results was an entertainment, as watching trained circus cats jump through hoops. Have you all idea how difficult it is to train a cat? It's not impossible, but you need a cat very motivated by food.

All right, he had a little weird. Musk said he was beginning to choke on the Tesla owners who volunteered to help with model 3 shipments, for example. It is not uncommon for Musk to tear a little, it's just not normal. Also, I guess I should say that I do not know of any for-profit company that relies on volunteers to help them manage their deliveries. But at the scale of strangeness related to Tesla, it is not very high.

Instead of taking the turn of the victory I expected the profitable quarter, the other directors of Musk and Tesla have talked about almost everything else under the sun, with the exception of the new chairman of the board, which could to be James Murdoch or not. (Yes, someone asked, Musk would not answer.)

There was some crazy talk about sharing vehicles, a plan that is reminiscent of GM's Maven, but which relies on total autonomy from God's autonomous driving (level 5). Musk mentions that during calls for results, it's an Uber-Lyft-AirBnB combo platter, but that never becomes very concrete. So, normal for Tesla.

This quarter contained the most normal-car-executive shit I've had already seen from musk. First, he announced that the Y model – it's the Tesla SUV, for all who play at home – comes! The final prototype has been approved. There is also a semi-trailer and a new Roadster that is needed, which means that Musk said that the company was progressing in both areas. What fascinates Musk the most is the Tesla pickup truck. In fact, trucks are very hot, unlike sedans. Ford and Fiat are dunzo with sedans and go on trucks and SUVs, baby. So, the Y and the truck are in fashion. It's … almost normcore.

Profits this quarter do not eliminate all the risks for Tesla. Among these risks: the rise of the Gigafactory and the expenses around more Gigafactories. Expansion is expensive and Tesla has done it – so far anyway – through its debt. Tesla is certainly not the only company that has been heavily indebted, but it's definitely something to watch.

But the main message of the earnings call seemed to be Musk trying to straighten out and fly right. His antics – "secured financing", calling a backup diver a peddler, drinking whiskey and hitting Joe Rogan's show – have been very muted. He does not fight the "erratic" narrative; he ignores it publicly and shows responsibility. This should reassure nervous investors, who have experienced a roller coaster in one year.

Musk's good behavior is not limited to his call for winnings either. His Twitter account, which turned out to be a risk for Tesla in the third quarter, has cooled. He had briefly locked from his account, he says, for tweeting about the anime and joke about Bitcoin – an ironic reference to the crooks who pose for him during the service. Musk is also solicit dank memes. Of course, it's weird for a CEO, but by Musk's standards, it's basically normal. How long do you think this arc of land will last?