by dana hull tesla inc reports firstquarter earnings wednesday after the market closes between now and then investors customers followers and doubters will be chattering about what chief executive officer elon musk has in store come late afternoon given the tumult of recent weeks the main focus will likely be on production of the model 3 the key to teslas plan to bring electric vehicles to the masses and eventually reach profitability but there are a lot of other questions toomusk 46 spent the last earnings call talking about how battery production at his gigafactory east of reno nevada was the limiting factor on model 3 output but we havent heard much about it since the tesla ceo has said automated assembly line components from germany would arrive at the battery plant by march so did they is the new line up and running its hard to know if battery module production is still a limiting factor or if other unforeseen production issues have cropped up there or at teslas assembly plant in fremont california equally important is expenditures tesla ended 2017 with 34 billion in cash on hand and 94 billion in outstanding debt many analysts said tesla will need to raise money again despite the companys stated position that it does not require an equity or debt raise this year apart from standing credit lines when it reported delivery and production figures in early april while production and cash will be the main focus bloomberg gadfly columnist liam denning addressed the cash issue here journalists analysts and prospective buyers will be listening for details on many other pressing issues here are seven of them 1 autopilot musk has promised that teslas driver assistance platform known as autopilot has the hardware necessary to enable fully autonomous driving musk once promised to showcase an autonomous crosscountry drive from california to new york by the end of 2017 as with many musk timelines that date has slipped an unknown number of customers have paid 3000 for full self driving capability but tesla hasnt released it yet the death of walter huang a 38yearold who died in his model x on a california highway in march drew the attention of investigators from the us national transportation safety board and turnover on teslas autopilot team has continued with the high profile departure of jim keller to intel corp what does musk say about the team the technology and the product road map from here musks master plan part deux envisioned a tesla network a shared autonomy fleet that would allow owners to put their cars to work for them when they are in the office or on vacation musk last described it as a combination of uber or lyft and airbnb but the regulatory framework for how that would all work isnt yet in place nor is the technology will a model 3 delivered today be capable of full selfdriving and able to use the tesla network in the futureevery quarter were interested