Tesla just laid out its transportation mission: World domination

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has made a bold prediction about the future of autonomous driving technology. During the automaker's earnings call on Wednesday, Musk claimed that Tesla would dominate the global market for passenger miles, provided governments do not intervene. He stated, "I think Tesla will end up doing a majority of all passenger miles on Earth in any country where it is allowed to operate freely."

Musk believes that the biggest obstacle to achieving this goal is foreign governments blocking autonomous technology to protect domestic industries. This is a more ambitious prediction than Musk's previous claims, which suggested that only a "vast majority" of miles would be autonomous. Tesla is currently focusing on its high-priced Roadster, which will be the only vehicle with manual operation.

The company has also been rolling out its steering-wheel-less Cybercab for ride-hailing in Texas. However, Tesla has faced challenges in its rollout, including an NHTSA audit inquiry. Musk has previously missed targets for the introduction of unsupervised autonomy, but he now expects it to be available in the second quarter of the next year.