Investor's Corner
Wired Takes a Tesla Factory Tour with Diarmuid O’Connell
Wired got a tour of the Tesla factory recently in the company of Diarmuid O’Connell, vice president of business development. The tour turned into a discussion of the core values that are the foundation of everything Tesla does.
Wired UK editor Michael Rundle recounts his recent tour of the Tesla factory with Vice President of Business Development, Diarmuid O’Connell. What started off as a jaunt through the factory soon became a deep dive into the philosophy that underpins everything Tesla stands for.
O’Connell was the 50th person hired by Tesla and the first who was not a trained engineer. He is a firm believer in the gospel according to Musk, but he is far from the only one. As reported by Wired UK, one company staffer was overheard during the tour saying the company’s mission is to discomfort “petrodictators.”
O’Connell starts off by telling Rundle that Tesla is not in the business of making automobiles. “Tesla is in the business of inspiring competition. The more electric vehicles the better.” Then he adds, “It would be a fulfillment of our mission if the biggest manufacturer in the US put a mass-market EV on the road. We’re hopeful that they will and frankly that everyone else does.”
He suggests that Tesla is bent on securing the future of “sustainable transport” as a whole, not just making a profit. If it can establish that EVs are viable, more cars, more charging infrastructure, more battery research and development, more greening of the electrical greed, and a reduced dependence on foreign oil will follow, Tesla will make money. But if Tesla loses its bet on the future, not only will it fail, but the environment and the world will lose as well.
For those who criticize the company for being slow to get its products to market, O’Connell has an answer. “If we had been able to produce [the Model S] out of the box 12 years ago, we would have done so. We had no brand, no capital, no manufacturing base and no developed technology,” he says. “This is the classic technology introduction model that has led to the mass market for everything from air travel to cell phones. … This is how you do it if you’re starting from zero.”
Tesla relies too much on government subsidies and the sale of emissions credits, some critics charge. O’Connell has an answer for that too. The oil and gas industries receive “$2 trillion in global subsidies” every year, he points out, but he saves his most severe criticism for “the $25 billion R&D tax credit that Exxon Mobile and some of the other big American gasoline petroleum producers still enjoy 120 years into the development of that technology.” Why doesn’t the press talk about that, he wonders?
Asked about how autonomous cars and ride sharing may affect the environment going forward, he says, “I think what’s important is the emissions profile of any car, whether it’s shared or owned. Big or small. We’re trying to move as quickly as possible where the emissions profile of a vehicle is zero, and the emissions profile of the original electron going into the vehicle is as close to zero as possible.”
As Tesla expands its markets to other countries, it will source as many components as possible from local sources. That includes building more Gigafactories nearby, whether in Europe, China, Japan or any other country. Doing so is only common sense, he argues.
With all the buzz about the Chevy Bolt, new competition from Faraday Future, Atieva, NextEV, BYD and BAIC, O’Connell takes a “What have you done for me lately?” attitude. “The path of getting there — that’s the question. And the promise of doing something two- and three- and four years hence do not impress me,” O’Connell says. “People doing stuff now? That impresses me.”
Finally, O’Connell gets down the bottom line, the real nitty gritty, the foundation Tesla is built on. “[Y]ou also have to put on the table how are we as a society thinking about larger issues, and moving ourselves towards taking other than strictly market oriented actions, to deliver public health benefits,” he says. “Maybe survival [depends] on how you think about carbon intensity and the logical progression of too much carbon in our atmosphere.”
There a lot of people who think a social conscience is not the proper role of business. It’s not the capitalist model they teach in business school. Some would go so far as to say Tesla is foolish for letting such considerations as respect for the earth color its business plans and detract from the quest for profits.
Maybe so, but if you listen to Diarmuid O’Connell, who obviously gets his convictions from Elon Musk himself, someday in the not too distant future, we will find out who is foolish…..and who are really the fools.
Photo credits: Tesla
Tesla Full Self-Driving (Supervised) is currently listed as a Level 2 suite in terms of its passenger cars. As its Robotaxi platform continues to move quickly, it has been recognized as a Level 4 ride-sharing program by the State of Texas, as Tesla recently self-certified itself.
However, a Wall Street analyst is arguing that Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) has effectively achieved Level 4 autonomy in most conditions in all of its vehicles, drawing on personal experience and data released by the company.
Alex Potter of Piper Sandler said in a note to investors on Wednesday that “Tesla has solved the self-driving puzzle,” pointing to decisions to offer insurance discounts for FSD-enabled policies as a signal of confidence, which is backed up by stellar safety records compared to human driving.
Investing.com initially reported on Potter’s new note.
Additionally, Potter looks at the recent start of Cybercab production at Giga Texas as a potential indication that Tesla is ready to offer some level of unsupervised driving at least in the near future. The Cybercab has no steering wheel or pedals, completely eliminating the ability for human input.
He also sees Tesla’s allocation of “several hundred million USD (if not $1B+)” as confidence internally, seeing as it would be tough to set aside that amount of capital toward a project that the company does not see as relatively near-term.
Forward thinking, especially as Cybercab has no human controls, it would make sense that Tesla is at least close to self-driving. How close is another question.
Tesla has routinely teased that unsupervised FSD is close, but there are still a lot of things it feels as if the company has to roll out some more capability, including unsupervised parking features, known as “Banish,” better operation with regional self-driving performance, and other improvements.
That is not to say that Tesla FSD is super impressive already. It has already completed coast-to-coast drives across the United States and Canada, it routinely takes the stress out of driving for most people, and it has proven through Tesla Safety Reports that it is safer and involved in accidents less frequently than humans.
🚨 These are the first-ever FSD safety statistics out of the Netherlands, showing it was over 3.5x safer than human driving on Dutch roads.
The most recent numbers out of Tesla for North America show:
-Over 5.5 million miles between accidents for Teslas using FSD
-660k miles… https://t.co/XKlRzgSGEh pic.twitter.com/HX6kzh0ZKc— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 9, 2026
Even Potter believes it is capable, as he used it to go from Missoula, Montana, to Minneapolis, Minnesota, back in April.
“There’s no substitute for personal experience,” he wrote.
Investor's Corner
Tesla just did something in South Korea that no foreign carmaker has ever done
Tesla’s Model Y just became South Korea’s best-selling car, beating every domestic model in May.
Tesla did something last month that no foreign car has ever done in South Korea by outselling every vehicle in the country, domestic or imported, finishing the month with Model Y as the single best-selling car across the entire Korean market. According to data from the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association released on June 4, the Model Y recorded 8,762 units sold in May, pushing the Kia Sorento into second place at 7,836 units and the Hyundai Grandeur into third at 5,183 units. It is the first time an imported vehicle has outsold every domestic model on a single-month basis.
Tesla imported 10,866 cars into South Korea in May, making it the top import brand for the fourth consecutive month. BMW followed at 6,555 units, less than two-thirds of Tesla’s total, while BYD registered just 1,032 units. The combined domestic sales of GM Korea, Renault Korea, and KG Mobility last month totaled just 7,019 units, meaning a single Tesla model outsold three Korean automakers combined.
Tesla FSD earns high praise in South Korea’s real-world autonomous driving test
South Korea has historically been one of the hardest markets for foreign automakers to crack. Hyundai and Kia together control close to 70% of the overall market and carry deep consumer loyalty built over decades. Tesla’s path into this market was an uphill battle due to high import duties, limited service infrastructure, and early skepticism about charging networks. In 2024, the Model Y was the best-selling imported car in South Korea with 18,717 units for the full year. By 2025, after the Juniper refresh, it cleared 50,000 units and took the top spot among all EVs.
Year to date, Tesla has a 250.8% increase in the country over the same period last year, and now holds a 30.8% share of the entire imported car segment for 2026. EVs as a category represented 48.6% of all imported passenger car registrations in May. As Teslarati has reported, the Juniper refresh brought meaningful improvements to range, interior quality, and ride refinement that addressed the most common criticisms of earlier Model Y versions. Those upgrades appear to be resonating in markets like South Korea where buyers compare Tesla directly against high end domestic competitors.
The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) stands to reap one of the most extraordinary returns in pension fund history thanks to a bold 2019 investment in SpaceX.
According to a recent report from The Globe and Mail, the Toronto-based fund invested roughly $300 million CAD (~$220 million USD at the time) in Elon Musk’s space company as its inaugural deal through the Teachers’ Innovation Platform.
At SpaceX’s anticipated $1.75 trillion IPO valuation, set for a mid-June debut on Nasdaq under ticker $SPCX, that stake could now be worth up to $11.6 billion USD. This would represent a roughly 50x return and easily become OTPP’s most successful single investment ever.
The fund manages $279 billion in assets for approximately 346,000 working and retired teachers in Ontario, potentially delivering an average boost of around $33,500 per member if fully realized.
SpaceX has filed its S-1 and plans to price shares at $135 each, aiming to raise a record $75 billion in what would be the largest IPO in history, surpassing Saudi Aramco. The company reported $18.67 billion in revenue for 2025, driven primarily by Starlink satellite internet growth and NASA contracts, though it continues to post significant losses tied to ambitious R&D in Starship and AI initiatives.
Important pieces moving forward include:
- Starlink Expansion: The satellite broadband service is scaling rapidly, targeting global connectivity, especially in underserved rural and remote areas. This segment offers massive recurring revenue potential as numbers climb.
- Starship and Reusability Leadership: SpaceX’s fully reusable Starship aims to slash launch costs dramatically, enabling frequent missions, Mars ambitions, and lucrative government/defense contracts. Success here could unlock exponential growth.
- AI and Diversification: Recent moves, including ties to xAI, position SpaceX in high-growth AI infrastructure, broadening beyond traditional aerospace.
- Validation Scrutiny: While the $1.75 trillion target excites investors, analysts like Morningstar value the company closer to $780 billion, citing high multiples (around 90x trailing revenue) and execution risks. A 180-day lockup period will prevent early investors like OTPP from selling immediately post-IPO.
The irony has not been lost on observers. Ontario’s government previously canceled a Starlink rural internet contract amid political tensions involving Musk, yet the pension fund’s savvy investment, made when SpaceX was valued around $33-36 billion, and Starlink was nascent, delivers outsized gains independent of politics.
For OTPP, this windfall strengthens its already solid 111 percent funding ratio and underscores the value of patient, innovation-focused capital allocation.
For SpaceX, the IPO marks a new chapter: greater transparency, access to public markets for talent retention and growth capital, and heightened pressure to deliver on its multi-planetary vision.
All eyes are fixed on whether SpaceX can justify its lofty valuation through sustained execution. For Ontario teachers, the returns are already stellar, but SpaceX, like other Musk companies in the past, has plenty of things to prove. Perhaps the most ideal person for the job is at the helm, hoping to bring the company to a massive valuation.
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