Tesla reported second-quarter results after Wednesday's closing bell, unveiling profits and sales in line with Wall Street expectations. Losses mounted for the stock, however, as the company's call with analysts sowed more doubts than offered answers about Tesla's prospects and Chief Executive Elon Musk said he could see potential for "a few rough quarters" ahead.

But if you just listened in on the company’s call with analysts, you would have no idea why. For an earnings call, there was zero talk of, um, earnings. And the overall message from Tesla’s top brass seemed to be: We are a robotics and AI company, and, someday soon, it’s going to be awesome.