Investor Gary Black of The Future Fund LLC reaffirmed that Tesla Inc.‘s (NASDAQ:TSLA) Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology has a negligible impact on sales, outlining Rivian Automotive Inc.‘s (NASDAQ:RIVN) stock rally following its delivery beat as an example.
FSD Not Driving Sales, Gary Black Says
Amid a sharp decline in Tesla shares, the investor took to the social media platform X on Thursday, quoting a post by Teslarati, which said that people were “misinformed” about the FSD technology and autonomous driving.
“FSD is not driving sales,” the investor said in the post. He added that consumers had “no idea about FSD” or about the company‘s “autonomy efforts.”
The investor doubled down on his take, decrying the EV giant’s lack of PR and marketing efforts. “Ask 10 random drivers if $TSLA FSD would cause them to buy a Tesla. Most will not know what you’re talking about,” the investor said. “It’s not like the company advertises or has a broad PR effort,” he added.
Gary Black On Rivian Deliveries
The investor also outlined Rivian Automotive Inc.‘s (NASDAQ:RIVN) delivery beat for the second quarter of 2026 as the RJ Scaringe-led automaker posted 12,194 deliveries, as well as updated its annual delivery forecast for 2026 to 65,000 to 70,000 vehicles.
The investor had earlier said he expected both Tesla and Rivian to post higher delivery numbers than expected as consumers shifted to electric vehicles amid higher gas prices following the war with Iran.
In a separate post, the investor shared that Tesla’s sales rally was a byproduct of “much higher gas prices” rather than a “newfound infatuation with TSLA FSD or supervised autonomy,” he said.
“As evidence, $RIVN, which has a fledgling autonomous effort, is +8% today on a 2Q YoY deliveries gain of +10%,” the investor said.
Elon Musk Touts Optimus Production
Tesla CEO Elon Musk shared that the company had ramped up efforts to produce the Optimus Humanoid robot at the automaker’s Fremont, California, facility following the Model S and X sunset.
Tesla’s VP of Vehicle Engineering, Lars Moravy, said that the automaker expects over 40 production lines at the facility due to the intricate nature of the robot.
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