Although Tesla is not present at the 2019 North American International Auto Show in Detroit this year, Elon Musk has been awarded the 'Disruptor of the Year' Award at the CNET Roadshow Shift Awards.
Musk won the award over the other two nominees-Mike Flewitt, CEO of McLaren Automotive, and Travis Vandenzanden, CEO of scooter company Bird.
No Tesla, however, won in the vehicle categories in the CNET Roadshow Shift Awards. Tesla was nominated for Safety Tech of the Year for its Navigate on Autopilot update 9.0. The winner was Audi for its Drive Assistance Package with zFAS and lidar. In the Driveline Tech of the Year category, Tesla was nominated for its all-wheel drive Performance powertrain. The winner was Nissan/Infiniti for its VC-Turbo variable compression.
The Disruptor of the Year award "is all about pushing the industry forward and leaving a lasting impact on the future of the automotive industry. Elon Musk fits that bill to a T. After smoothing out its production process, Tesla once again proved profitable. The Model 3 quickly launched itself to prominence in an already busy segment, and buyers themselves could feel the effects of those launches thanks to its wild Performance variant. Hell, he even made tunnels interesting," wrote Roadshow Editor in Chief Tim Stevens.
"He of course couldn't be with us today," Stevens told Mlive speaking about Musk. "He's somewhere between here and Mars right now."
"We're not necessarily judging tremendous accomplishments," Chris Paukert, executive editor of Roadshow, told Mlive. "We're just looking at who stirred the pot the most this year."
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Musk really stirred the pot the most over the past year. As he was working hard to ensure the ramping up of Model 3 production, he increased his Twitter activity, saying in early August that he would take Tesla private "funding secured", only to backtrack on that proposal two weeks later.
The tweet secured Musk an investigation from the SEC, which later charged Tesla's CEO with securities fraud. Musk and the SEC quickly settled the charge days after the commission charged him. Last year, Musk also snubbed analysts on one conference call, saying their questions were 'boring', and appeared on a live video interview during which he smoked marijuana.
At the end of the year, Tesla's vehicle deliveries for Q4 2018 hit a record high as the EV maker delivered 90,700 vehicles in the last quarter of 2018, more than all the cars it delivered to clients in 2017.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More