Elon Musk's latest instruction: Let robots take over everything, and you can just lie at home and count money.

Is it a plan

or a vision?

Early this morning, Tesla unveiled their "Master Plan Part 4".

Different from previous blueprints that focused on automotive or energy products, Tesla this time painted a more distant and idealized end: a "sustainable abundance" society dominated by AI and robots. Yes, Tesla's strategic focus has shifted from "sustainable development" to the conception of the future social form.

The core of this conception is no longer the car, but productivity itself. Elon Musk said:

80% of Tesla's value will come from Optimus (the humanoid robot).

Looking back at the first and second parts of Tesla's Master Plan, their logic is clear and practical:

In the first part in 2006, Tesla mapped out a product roadmap that started from the high - end niche market and eventually moved towards mass - market models, answering the questions of the survival and market positioning of electric vehicles. Ten years later, the second part built a complete ecosystem around the well - established automotive products, including solar energy, energy storage, autonomous driving, and even shared mobility.

The common point of these two plans is that they both focused on Tesla's own products and business strategies, answering the question of "what Tesla wants to do".

The turning point came with the third part of the Master Plan in 2023.

It no longer seemed like a business plan for Tesla, but rather an analysis report for the global economy. Tesla used a vast amount of data to try to prove the feasibility of the global transition to sustainable energy from the first principles of physics and economics.

Sure enough, this report led to a sharp drop in Tesla's stock price -

It depicted an extremely grand goal that required a large amount of industrial production capacity to achieve, but it also exposed a huge productivity gap that could not be filled by the existing production methods. This is a systematic problem that is far beyond the ability of Tesla alone to change.

In the latest fourth part, Musk still doesn't seem to have given a more practical answer. Instead of returning to more specific business or product planning, he enlarged the scale of the blueprint again, upgrading from transforming the global energy system to reshaping the productivity structure of human society itself.

This makes the fourth part also seem less like a "business plan" and more like a "vision" for the future.

In this new blueprint, artificial intelligence (AI) is elevated to the underlying technology that drives everything, becoming the brain of the entire system; while the humanoid robot (Optimus) is the physical entity responsible for executing all production tasks. Tesla's existing hardware businesses such as cars and energy storage will all become downstream application scenarios of its AI capabilities.

The premise of all this is that the robots themselves must be able to be mass - manufactured.

Tesla believes that by learning from the mass - production experience of the automotive industry, it is logically feasible to quickly mass - produce robots to replace human labor. Their ultimate goal is to establish a new, machine - driven production system, thereby achieving exponential growth in productivity.

Such a machine - driven production system will inevitably require a new social economy to match it. On Musk's X platform, the most discussed question is:

When robots replace human labor, how can those who are unemployed make a living?

This is how Musk answered:

In the future, there will be universal high income (not just basic income). Everyone will have the best medical care, food, housing, transportation, and everything else. This is a kind of "sustainable abundance".

The core mechanism of Musk's concept of "universal high income (UHI)" is to tax the huge production value created by robots (for example, in the form of consumption tax), and then the government distributes it to all citizens in the form of high income.

Some supporters on X believe that the improvement of productivity will be accompanied by a decrease in prices, and the purchasing power of this "income" will also be greatly increased.

However, the implementation path of this concept, political resistance, and the impact on the social structure are all unresolved problems. Tesla didn't mention these in their "Master Plan". When we examine this concept in the context of specific countries, its complexity will become even more prominent, especially in China.

Not long ago, the Dojo supercomputer team, which Musk had high hopes for, announced its dissolution, and the team leader Peter Bannon will also leave. Dojo was once positioned as the core for Tesla to obtain computing power in the artificial intelligence competition. Musk's explanation for this is to "integrate resources to develop AI5, AI 6, and subsequent chips". Meanwhile, Tesla's automotive business has not been going smoothly in Europe and China either. In the first half of 2025, Tesla's sales in the Chinese market decreased by about 5.4% year - on - year, and in the second quarter, it even declined by 13.5% year - on - year.

These internal upheavals and external challenges are in sharp contrast to the exponential growth and "abundant future" depicted in the fourth part.

In short, from this "Master Plan", Tesla has made major adjustments to their strategic direction, and their ambition has far exceeded the scope of business.

It's just that a technology company can design and manufacture tools to change the world, but to achieve the "sustainable abundance" that Musk mentioned is far beyond the power of a single company.

🌟 The following is the original text of Tesla's Master Plan Part 4:

Introduction

Since Tesla was founded, each version of our Master Plan has focused on our North Star: achieving unrestricted and uncompromising sustainability.

Humans are creators of tools. At Tesla, we manufacture physical products on a large scale and at low cost, with the goal of making everyone's life better.

As the influence of artificial intelligence (AI) technology grows, the mission stated in "Master Plan Part 4" is not surprising.

The next chapter of the Tesla story will help us create a world that we've just begun to imagine, on an unprecedented scale. We're building products and services that can bring artificial intelligence into the physical world.

For nearly two decades, we've worked tirelessly to lay the foundation for this technological renaissance by developing electric vehicles, energy products, and humanoid robots.

Now, we're combining our manufacturing capabilities with our autonomous driving technology to offer new products and services that will accelerate global prosperity and human well - being through economic growth shared by all of humanity. We're unifying our hardware and software on a large scale, and in the process, creating a safer, cleaner, and more enjoyable world.

This is sustainable abundance.

Central Ideas

1. Growth is infinite

Growth in one area doesn't have to come at the expense of decline in another. Resource shortages can be compensated for by technological progress, stronger innovation, and new ideas.

The technologies that gave us the ability to drive machines triggered the Industrial Revolution, broadened our economic landscape, and created more opportunities for everyone. Breakthrough inventions such as semiconductors and the Internet have expanded social and economic opportunities in all aspects of human experience - from creating more jobs and providing wider access to information to enabling deeper interpersonal connections - rather than weakening them.

Our desire to go beyond the so - called "possible" will promote the growth necessary to achieve true sustainable abundance.

2. Innovation eliminates limitations

For centuries, the main means of transportation for humans was the horse. Then, in the past fifty - odd years, fossil - fuel - powered internal combustion engine vehicles became the standard and taken - for - granted mode of transportation. The idea that batteries could be produced economically and on a large scale to enable the transportation industry to break free from fossil fuels seemed like a pipe dream at that time - until Tesla led the way forward.

Through continuous innovation, we overcame the technological limitations of battery development and established an industry driven by renewable resources.

3. Technology solves practical problems

The products and services born in the process of accelerating towards sustainable abundance will promote human progress by solving real - world problems. To further accelerate innovation, we make the manufacturing of each product more efficient and sustainable than the previous one.

Solar power generation and large - scale battery energy storage are improving the availability and reliability of clean electricity in our communities - in a more economical and sustainable way.

Autonomous vehicles have the ability to greatly improve the economy, availability, and safety of transportation while reducing pollution, especially in our increasingly dense international metropolises.

Optimus - our autonomous humanoid robot - is not only changing people's perception of labor itself but also its availability and capabilities. Those particularly monotonous or dangerous jobs and tasks can now be done in other ways. In this way, Optimus' mission is to give people more time to do what they love.

4. Autonomy must benefit all of humanity

The tools we make at Tesla help us build products that can promote human prosperity.

How we develop and use autonomy - and the new capabilities it brings us - should be guided by its ability to improve human well - being. Making everyone's daily life better and safer through our autonomous technology has always been and will remain our focus.

5. Wider adoption drives stronger growth

To build a prosperous and unrestricted society, it is necessary to be able to mass - manufacture affordable and technologically advanced products on a large scale. This helps to further promote the democratization of society and improve everyone's quality of life in the process. The hallmark of meritocracy is to create opportunities for everyone to use their skills to achieve everything they can imagine.

Everyone should have access to these opportunities, and technological growth can help ensure that each of us can make the most of our most limited resource: time.

We're accelerating the world's transition to sustainable abundance

We must be clear: overcoming this challenge will be extremely difficult. Eliminating scarcity requires unremitting efforts and excellent execution. Some people will think it's impossible to achieve. Many others will cheer for every obstacle and setback we inevitably encounter in the process. But once we overcome this challenge, our critics will finally see that what they once thought was impossible is indeed possible. And that's okay for us, because the most important thing is that we can jointly create a sustainable and truly abundant future for future generations.

All worthwhile journeys are long. And they all start with the first step.

Our first step was to manufacture an exciting sports car - the Roadster. Then, we used the profits to fund the research, development, and production of more affordable but equally exciting products - the Model S and Model X. Then we repeated this process, bringing forth the Model 3, Model Y, and subsequent models.

This process requires us to take many steps, some small, some large. But ultimately, each victory led to the next, and even after failures, we could keep building momentum. Our momentum allowed us to build a comprehensively integrated sustainable product ecosystem, covering everything from transportation to energy production, battery storage, and robotics.

Today, we're on the cusp of a revolutionary era, ready for unprecedented growth. And this time, for Tesla and all of humanity, it won't be a single step but a leap. The tools we're going to develop will help us build a world we've always dreamed of by redefining the scale and inclusiveness of the three basic elements of labor, mobility, and energy -

A world of sustainable abundance.

This article is from the WeChat official account "