• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

'The demographic dividend of the last 40 years is ending': J.P. Morgan says the world is running out of the two things that kept interest rates down

2

Jensen Huang made his $172 billion fortune on AI chips. His family's $75 million gift to Vanderbilt argues art decides what technology is for

3

The $39 trillion U.S. national debt isn’t as high as Japan’s and Singapore’s relative to economy size—and yet it's still worse somehow

1

'The demographic dividend of the last 40 years is ending': J.P. Morgan says the world is running out of the two things that kept interest rates down

2

Jensen Huang made his $172 billion fortune on AI chips. His family's $75 million gift to Vanderbilt argues art decides what technology is for

3

The $39 trillion U.S. national debt isn’t as high as Japan’s and Singapore’s relative to economy size—and yet it's still worse somehow
Tech

Billionaire investor Ron Baron gets a first-hand demonstration of Tesla’s self-driving tech: ‘I want to see Steve Jobs’ house’

Jason Ma
By
Jason Ma
Jason Ma
Weekend Editor
Down Arrow Button Icon
Jason Ma
By
Jason Ma
Jason Ma
Weekend Editor
Down Arrow Button Icon
April 27, 2024, 2:10 PM ET
Steve Jobs points during an Apple event
Steve Jobs answers questions at an Apple event in 2010.Justin Sullivan—Getty Images
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Baron Capital Chairman and CEO Ron Baron recently saw first hand how Tesla’s self-driving technology is progressing with a ride near the company’s campus in California.

Recommended Video

The billionaire investor told CNBC on Thursday that he was visiting Elon Musk’s SpaceX near Los Angeles on Monday morning, meeting with engineers and finance staff. Then in the afternoon, he traveled up the coast to Tesla to see employees working on autonomous-driving technology and “the compute people.”

Baron said the 12th iteration of the technology has benefitted from enormous amount of data collected by Tesla cars and by more AI-driven computing power. That’s after earlier versions required more manual coding, which slowed progress.

“Humans can’t do it. Now they have compute to figure everything out. So now you’re on the verge with autonomous driving in your car,” he explained. “So I said, ‘OK, show me.'”

For a couple hours, Tesla staff went over the technology with him. After that, Baron told them he wanted to see how it works before he had to head back to New York.

So they got into a car in the parking lot, accompanied by an analyst and two Tesla employees, he recalled.

“We’re sitting in the car, and so, ‘Where do you want to go?'” Baron continued. “I said, ‘I want to see Steve Jobs’ house.’ And they say, ‘OK,’ and they punch in the address.”

The car departed on its own, driving through the Tesla parking lot and waiting for traffic to pass before turning onto the road.

It turned again and drove behind other cars. When it got to a stop sign at an intersection, the car waited for other drivers before taking its turn while also checking in both directions.

Then a pedestrian started crossing the street, and the car stopped, Baron said. The pedestrian waved at the waiting car, which resumed its trip afterward.

“Then it pulls up and makes a left hand turn and then goes in front of Steve Jobs’ house,” he added. “It’s a nice house, just a house though.”

After that, the car went back: “It drove all by itself.” When pressed by CNBC on the timing of Tesla’s autonomous-driving capabilities, Baron simply answered, “now.”

Tesla did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.

The first-hand demonstration of Tesla’s self-driving technology came at a critical time for Musk’s electric vehicle company. On Tuesday, Tesla reported a steep dive in first-quarter profit as falling sales and price cuts hit margins.

But Wall Street breathed a sigh of relief as Musk also said Tesla is moving ahead with a lower-cost EV model, after some analysts had earlier worried that he would prioritize his robo-taxi ambitions instead. Meanwhile, Tesla has also announced job cuts, while a string of top executives are heading out the door.

For his part, Baron remains bullish on Tesla stock, which represents the largest position in his portfolio. Citing the low-cost car and robo-taxis, he predicted shares are “going to go up huge. Now is the bottom.”

Still, he also voiced some frustration with the earlier performance of the stock, up only 1% since this time last year and down overall since the start of 2021. 

“It’s not so exciting to be up 1% in a year when the market is so strong,” he told CNBC. “I do look around all the time and see everyone getting rich—and I’m not poor, but I haven’t made a lot of progress over the last three years, so therefore I think it’s like a rubber band—I’m going to catch up again.”

About the Author
Jason Ma
By Jason MaWeekend Editor

Jason Ma is the weekend editor at Fortune, where he covers markets, the economy, finance, and housing.

See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • TikTok icon
  • YouTube icon

Latest in Tech

Google logo is displayed on a smartphone in front of the EU Flag.
CybersecurityGoogle
EU strikes Google with $1 billion fine in major crackdown on antitrust regulations even as Trump threatens retaliation
By The Associated Press and Sam McNeilJuly 24, 2026
10 hours ago
AI executives demand OpenAI release more details about how the Hugging Face hack happened
AIOpenAI
AI executives demand OpenAI release more details about how the Hugging Face hack happened
By Emily ForliniJuly 24, 2026
11 hours ago
woman yellow shirt standing in front of ring light
SuccessSocial Media
Influencer marketing isn’t an experiment anymore as companies expand their creator advertising budgets
By Tatiana SatauaJuly 24, 2026
11 hours ago
dario
AIEconomics
Anthropic’s head of economics just explained why we haven’t seen a white-collar bloodbath — yet
By Nick LichtenbergJuly 24, 2026
12 hours ago
jh
AINvidia
Jensen Huang just used his first ever X post to warn the AI industry not to make the mistake that software narrowly avoided in the 1980s
By Nick LichtenbergJuly 24, 2026
12 hours ago
pjm
EnergyData centers
The AI boom’s hidden electricity bill — and why you’re paying it
By Nick LichtenbergJuly 24, 2026
13 hours ago

Most Popular

'The demographic dividend of the last 40 years is ending': J.P. Morgan says the world is running out of the two things that kept interest rates down
Economy
'The demographic dividend of the last 40 years is ending': J.P. Morgan says the world is running out of the two things that kept interest rates down
By Eleanor PringleJuly 24, 2026
23 hours ago
Jensen Huang made his $172 billion fortune on AI chips. His family's $75 million gift to Vanderbilt argues art decides what technology is for
Big Tech
Jensen Huang made his $172 billion fortune on AI chips. His family's $75 million gift to Vanderbilt argues art decides what technology is for
By Sydney LakeJuly 23, 2026
2 days ago
The $39 trillion U.S. national debt isn’t as high as Japan’s and Singapore’s relative to economy size—and yet it's still worse somehow
Economy
The $39 trillion U.S. national debt isn’t as high as Japan’s and Singapore’s relative to economy size—and yet it's still worse somehow
By Sasha RogelbergJuly 23, 2026
2 days ago
Current price of oil as of July 24, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of July 24, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJuly 24, 2026
21 hours ago
The millennial generation has split, new Fed research shows: Those over 35 are edging toward boomer-style wealth, while everyone else falls behind
Real Estate
The millennial generation has split, new Fed research shows: Those over 35 are edging toward boomer-style wealth, while everyone else falls behind
By Nick LichtenbergJuly 22, 2026
3 days ago
Turns out Dead Internet Theory was right: AI agents are eating the Web, growing by nearly 8,000% and rewiring the Internet's business model
AI
Turns out Dead Internet Theory was right: AI agents are eating the Web, growing by nearly 8,000% and rewiring the Internet's business model
By Mia OsmonbekovJuly 23, 2026
1 day ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.