Musk’s robot fantasy won’t save Tesla investors

Tesla’s quarterly results were a disaster by every metric. Net income plunged 71%, car sales dropped 13%, and automotive revenue fell 20%. Wall Street expected $21.3 billion in revenue and $0.41 earnings per share; Tesla delivered just $19.3 billion and $0.27. And that was only thanks to $595 million in carbon credits—government lifelines for a CEO who claims to loathe government intervention.

And that profit? It only exists thanks to $595 million in carbon credits—a government program that Elon Musk pretends to hate...