Tech tracker round-up: Tesla loses $2 billion after Elon Musk calls an analyst a 'boring bonehead'

Here the Evening Standard business team highlights all the major tech news today.

There's only one story every one is talking about and that's Elon Musk's earnings conference call last night.

Elon Musk revels in being a showman and last night turned his ire on financial analysts for not entertaining him.

On Tesla’s earnings call he dismissed questions from analysts concerning the car-maker’s Model 3 as “boring, not cool and so dry” — with Toni Sacconaghi at Bernstein coming in for particularly harsh treatment after he dared to ask about capital-expenditure.

“Excuse me, excuse me. Next, next. Boring bonehead questions are not cool. Next,” Musk said.

When Joseph Spak, an analyst from RBC Capital Markets posed a question about the Model 3, Musk reportedly paused for 15 seconds, before adding: 'These questions are so dry. They're killing me.'

During the call Musk, who is also CEO of aerospace firm Spac X and brain augmentation startup Neuralink, admonished the press for its handling of crashes involving Teslas on autopilot mode.

According to a transcript of the call, Musk added: 'It's really incredibly irresponsible of any journalists with integrity to write an article that would lead people to believe that autonomy is less safe.

'Because people might actually turn it off, and then die. So, anyway, I'm very upset by this.'

So uninterested was Musk that at one point he took several questions from a Tesla fan and Youtuber called Galileo Russell.

Musk has repeatedly pushed back manufacturing targets for the Model 3, Tesla’s first mass-market electric vehicle, and there are also concerns over cash burn.

The shares were doing ok, despite a record $710 million loss, but the call sent them falling by 5%.

Meanwhile here in London startup incubator firm Zinc, which helps entrepreneurs launch companies that can solve social problems, has raised £3 million in seed funding from the London School of Economics (LSE), among others.

The London-based company runs a nine-month program which takes on 50 entrepreneurs and, with the support of experts in social science, technology, design and business, helps them to build entirely new companies focused on solving social problems.