Key Points
Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk announced significant developments regarding the company’s robotaxi fleet, with over 500 vehicles currently transporting paid customers in Austin, Texas, and San Francisco. He anticipates this number will double each month and potentially expand to between 25% and 50% of the U.S. market by the end of the year, contingent on regulatory approvals.
The launch, however, has been cautious, with human monitoring still involved in certain areas. Musk mentioned that some robotaxis in Austin are now operating without any physical or remote monitors. Despite the optimistic outlook, independent sources have reported only four of the 58 robotaxis in Austin are truly unsupervised. Tesla’s historically ambitious timelines, including the promised rollout of 1 million robotaxis by 2020, raise skepticism among investors regarding the current projections.
The company is more than doubling its capital expenditures to increase production for robotaxis and its Optimus humanoid robots. Analysts express concerns, noting that Tesla may not generate positive free cash flow until 2026 or 2027. The stock is currently trading at over 200 times forward earnings, indicating that future success in autonomous vehicles is heavily factored into its valuation.
