Tesla has surpassed all of its rivals in valuation.
Ford, a legacy automaker with a 100-year head start, is worth a fraction of Tesla’s $1.3 trillion valuation.
Tesla global deliveries by year
- 2024: 1.79 million
- 2023: 1.81 million
- 2022: 1.37 million
- 2021: 936K
- 2020: 499K
- 2019: 367K
Source: Statista
While Tesla sold only a fraction of the 4.47 million vehicles that Ford sold globally in 2024, investors who recently approved Elon Musk’s $1 trillion pay package believe the company is just getting started.
However, Tesla appears to be experiencing some difficulties lately.
Tesla’s global sales fell year over year for the first time in 2024. After delivering 1.8 million vehicles in 2023, the company only sold 1.78 million the next year.
So far this year, Tesla has delivered 1.49 million EVs, following a strong third quarter that saw the company deliver nearly 500,000 vehicles. It will need another strong quarter to avoid another year of falling sales.
Despite this reality, investors see a bright future led by Elon Musk, humanoid robots, and autonomous vehicles. This week, Musk took to X to take a shot at his internal combustion rivals.
Photo by CFOTO on Getty Images
Elon Musk says his auto rivals don’t want his technology
Tesla has been working on Full Self-Driving for over a decade, and despite some missed deadlines and a few delays, it has achieved near-top-of-the-line level 2 autonomy.
The Society of Automotive Engineers’ level 2, as explained by Fierce Sensors, can control both steering and velocity at the same time — for example, to help with steering in order to center the car within a lane.
Related: Tesla gets an answer for its FSD ambitions in Europe
Tesla FSD has far more brand recognition than Ford BlueCruise, Chevy Super Cruise, or Stellantis AutoDrive.
On Nov. 24, Musk went on X (formerly Twitter) to take a shot at his rivals.
“I’ve tried to warn them and even offered to license Tesla FSD, but they don’t want it! Crazy…” Musk tweeted. “When legacy auto does occasionally reach out, they typically discuss implementing FSD for a tiny program in 5 years with unworkable requirements for Tesla, so pointless.”
Tesla shares were down 0.8% at last check the afternoon of Nov. 24.
Ford, GM, and Stellantis haven’t given up on their own autonomous driving tech
Based on his tweet, Elon Musk seems to believe that just because FSD is ahead of its rivals now, they aren’t also still working on the technology. Based on recent advancements, that is clearly not the case.
Ford BlueCruise first launched in 2021 and is currently available for a subscription price of $49 per month, $495 per year, or $2,495 for a lifetime plan.
Related: Tesla enthusiasts take Elon Musk’s cross-country FSD challenge
Chevy Super Cruise also offers level 2 automation for between $20 and $40 per month, depending on the vehicle, and initial hardware needs to be added, which could cost thousands.
But the first three years of connectivity are included with the purchase of a new vehicle.
Tesla performance benchmarks for Elon Musk $1 trillion pay package:
- 20 million Tesla vehicles delivered
- 10 million active FSD subscriptions
- 1 million bots delivered
- 1 million Robotaxis in commercial operation
- $400 billion of Adjusted EBITDA over four separate quarters
Tesla FSD can be purchased outright for $8,000 or via a subscription of $99 monthly.
Unlike Tesla FSD, Super Cruise and BlueCruise are limited to pre-mapped routes. But the people at MotorTrend still prefer both of those advanced driver assistance systems to what Tesla offers.
“We own a Model Y with FSD, and although we’ve been amazed at its attempts to navigate complex situations, we’ve been equally amazed at how it randomly decelerates, changes lanes for no apparent reason, or responds to a road closure by endlessly circling the block,” MotorTrend reported.
“More alarming, we’ve had so many near-collisions with FSD that we’ve begun to question whether it’s responsible to keep using it,” MotorTrend’s Aaron Gold said while reviewing the best car tech of 2025.
Both Super Cruise and BlueCruise have limits that FSD does not, the organization Personal Injury, Social Security Disability shared. Yet Tesla’s rivals are clearly still working on their own version of autonomous driving. They don’t need to partner with Tesla, at least for the time being.
Related: Ford CEO Jim Farley shares ‘shocking’ lesson he learned from Tesla
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