The yawning disparity between the performance of the electric car company and established automakers last year reflects the technological change roiling the industry.
The electric-car maker managed substantial growth as Europe and China increasingly propelled sales.
The feature raises fresh questions about whether Tesla is compromising safety as it rushes to add new technologies.
The automaker may have undermined safety in designing its Autopilot driver-assistance system to fit its chief executive’s vision, former employees say.
The electric car company is helping Chinese companies become global players in the emerging industry, posing a competitive threat to traditional rivals.
Peter Rawlinson designed the Tesla S. His new Lucid Air sedan is a direct challenge to Tesla’s dominance.
The 2018 tweet, in which Mr. Musk claimed he had secured funding to take Tesla private, initially sent the automaker’s shares soaring. But they sank when it became clear that no such deal had been reached.
He asked whether he should sell 10 percent of his stock, and Twitter voters said yes. Stock options he was granted in 2012 are “a ticking tax time bomb,” one expert said.
Tuesday’s losses put Tesla’s stock down more than 11 percent this week.
Hertz had said that it would convert more than 20 percent of its rental fleet to Tesla’s cars, a deal that helped propel Tesla’s stock value beyond $1 trillion for the first time.