If you don't like what's being said, change the conversation. That's advice Don Draper of "Mad Men" once gave. And it appears Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk is taking it.

By the numbers, Tesla painted a dismal picture through its latest quarterly results. But the stock told a different story: excitement. New models are on the way, Musk said. And beyond that, Tesla will prosper as a pioneer in autonomous ridesharing. Shares jumped following the earnings release, and the momentum carried over into morning trading Wednesday as the stock surged as much as 14%.

As Tesla car sales faltered, Musk delivered an optimistic pivot: Tesla isn't a car company.

Sales fell 9% from a year ago in the most recent quarter, the first drop in four years. Operating profit tumbled more than 50% from the same period last year. Guidance, too, was a drag, as executives foresee "notably lower volume."

But the market loved Tesla reassuring the world that, actually, cheaper cars are coming. As Jefferies analysts said in a note after the report, "first impression for us is CEO Musk appeasing the market by accelerating new product launches."

And Musk emphasized over and over again on the earnings call that investors shouldn't view Tesla as an automaker but rather as a digital platform akin to Uber (UBER) and Airbnb (ABNB) for an autonomous fleet.

During the call, when vice president of vehicle engineering Lars Moravy dodged a question about the specific timeline for a mass market $25,000 vehicle, Musk interjected to say that more details will come at Tesla's Aug. 8 robotaxi unveiling. But he added his patented visionary flourish: “The way to think of Tesla is almost entirely in terms of solving autonomy and being able to turn on that autonomy for a gigantic fleet.”

But there's a tension in Musk's auspicious goal-setting. Call it market dissonance. Musk is enthusiastically trying to convince shareholders that Tesla can leapfrog dedicated autonomous car companies like Alphabet's (GOOG, GOOGL) Waymo and swiftly “solve autonomy,” even as the market flashes strong signals that investors want Tesla to deliver cheaper EVs.

As Citi analysts wrote in a note after earnings, "We like Tesla's product pivot that appears to prioritize speed and launch/redesign on existing capacity."

But in his shift of focus, Musk is de-emphasizing the thing people are clamoring for, moving on to Tesla's next big thing, and shifting the valuation goalposts and ultimate vision for the company.

Musk elaborated later on the call: “We should be thought of as an AI robotics company. If you value Tesla as just an auto company — it’s just the wrong framework. If you ask the wrong question, then the right answer is impossible.”