Musk Dismisses Rumours, Says He’s Not Stepping Down As Tesla’s CEO

Elon Musk dismissed rumours that he might resign as CEO of Tesla on Tuesday and announced that the maker of electric vehicles and solar panels would begin advertising at the company’s annual shareholders meeting.

As per the reports when a shareholder asked Musk if he was stepping down from his from his designation as the CEO from the company, he responded without further discussion, “It ain’t so.” Following this,  another shareholder suggested that Tesla should try advertising, Musk replied by saying that he is open to it.

At the shareholder meeting at the Tesla factory site close to Austin, Texas, he told the shareholder, “This has some merit. We’ll experiment with some advertising to see how it performs.

With 140 million followers on Twitter, which the social media company acquired for $44 billion last autumn, Musk is able to generate a lot of free publicity for Tesla without spending money on it like many of its rivals.

The company’s “Full Self-Driving” software is almost at the point where it is safer than human driving, Musk told shareholders. A promise he has made for a number of years, he previously stated that the system should be ready this year.

Tesla claims on its website that drivers must always be ready to take over for the vehicles because they cannot drive themselves. U.S. safety regulators also ordered the company to recall the software because it occasionally disobeyed traffic laws. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has identified issues that will be resolved with an online software update.

Musk warned during the meeting on Tuesday that the Austin-based company may face difficulties in the coming year, largely as a result of rising interest rates that have increased the cost of purchasing a car.

He declared that the company “Tesla is not immune to the global economic environment,” but that it will survive the crisis and prosper even as many other businesses fail.