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It must be earnings day, because Tesla is making an announcement about Robotaxi.
The company said in a post on X that it will launch its Robotaxi service in Orlando and Tampa, and attached a pair of maps showing the service area in each city. There is no information on the size of the fleet or whether interested customers will be able to order the car immediately.
The timing of the post is noteworthy, considering later today Tesla CEO Elon Musk is expected to provide an update on the progress of the company’s Robotaxi service during a second-quarter earnings call. Adding two new cities to the agenda may seem like progress to some investors.
Of course, this progress is completely subjective. The company’s most important Robotaxi service is Significantly smaller What Elon Musk expected. In 2024, he said the company’s self-driving vehicles will be available to everyone Half the population of the United States By the end of 2025. Several months later, Musk said Tesla would have “500 or more cars” in the Austin area alone by the end of 2025.
The number of vehicles in each city also fluctuated wildly: In May, Tesla had five unattended robotaxis in Dallas, six in Houston, and 29 in Austin. As of today, there are only 17 unattended vehicles in Austin, four in Dallas, and zero in Houston, according to the Robotaxi Tracker website. By comparison, Waymo is estimated to have more than 3,500 fully self-driving vehicles operating in more than 10 cities.
Like Waymo, Tesla typically introduces a robotaxi to a new city with a safe driver at the wheel. Unlike Waymo, Tesla sometimes moves that person into the passenger seat with access to the kill switch in case anything goes wrong. The company has been inconsistent in how it introduces its robots to new markets. The numbers go up and down, with no explanation from the company as to why.
According to several reports, wait times for Tesla’s robot car can be long due to limited supply of vehicles. Many times vehicles pick up and land in the wrong place. Unattended vehicles are often operated remotely. this week, Tesla reported that an unattended robotaxi crashed In a tree trunk while being operated remotely. Musk expects the service to be profitable in 2027.
By adding new cities, Tesla is clearly trying to sell investors on the idea that its robotics venture is growing. But fluctuating fleet size, inconsistency between supervised and unattended vehicles, and long wait times tell a very different story.
