Elon Musk has once again stepped up his ambitious promises to make Tesla the leading provider of self-driving cars. He said that at least two million of the special Robotaxi model called Cybercab will be produced annually, “maybe four million in the end” and announced the new quarter results. He stated that restrictive estimation was his “best approximation.” He also stated that every current Tesla electric vehicle can drive autonomously.
Musk confirmed that Robotaxi should be produced in larger quantities by 2026. However, since 2016, Tesla has repeatedly declared that it will soon have autonomous driving vehicles. But so far Tesla’s “Autopilot” software, even in the advanced version, is just a driver assistance system in which the person behind the wheel takes responsibility and must always be ready to take control.
Robotaxi already exists among others
Meanwhile, Google’s sister company Waymo operates more than 100,000 passenger trips a week across four U.S. cities without a human at the steering wheel. However, more than $100,000 in extra technology is added to Waymo’s Jaguar vehicles that are made suitable for autonomous driving, making it difficult to make money from this business.
On the other hand, Musk hopes to build autonomous vehicles with only cameras instead of expensive laser radars. Once this is achieved, Tesla could gain a huge cost advantage – and it already has several million vehicles on the road with this capability. However, many industry experts question whether this is actually reliably possible.
Driving Service Application in Internal Testing
Tesla is already testing internally an automated driving service for employees in Silicon Valley, but with safety drivers at the wheel. Despite many past deadlines, the announcements have excited investors: Tesla stock rose nearly twelve percent in U.S. after-market trading on Wednesday.
The «Cybercab» prototype presented by Musk at a show in Hollywood about two weeks ago had neither a steering wheel nor pedals. According to the current rules of the USA, such vehicles can only go on the road in limited numbers with special permission. Additionally, regulations for driverless vehicles vary from state to state.
Musk Confidences in His Closeness to Trump
Here, his support for former President Donald Trump may play in Musk’s favor, because Trump wants to return to the White House again. In his election victory, Trump had envisaged appointing Musk to head a board to control government spending. If that happens, Musk said, he would commit to advocating for a nationwide regulation to certify autonomous cars, “for everyone, not just for Tesla.” He reiterated that self-driving Teslas will be on the streets in Texas and California next year.
More Sales with a More Affordable Model in 2025
In the first half of 2025, Musk plans to finally launch a more affordable Tesla model. That would boost sales growth by 20 to 30 percent over the next year, he said, unless of course there was a “major war” or “high interest rates.” Tesla has consistently grown sales rapidly – but it remains unclear whether deliveries will fall below 1.8 million vehicles in 2024.
«Cybertruck» Sales Increase
Last quarter, deliveries rose six percent to nearly 463,000 vehicles. The vast majority of these were the more affordable Model 3 and Y, with approximately 440,000 vehicles. However, the new electric pickup «Cybertruck» now ranks third in the list of electric vehicles sold in the USA, Tesla shared without giving a specific sales figure.
In quarterly earnings, Tesla narrowly missed analyst estimates. Revenues increased eight percent year over year to approximately $25.2 billion. The market average was expecting approximately $25.4 billion. Tesla’s income from CO2 certificates sold to car manufacturers with internal combustion engines also played a role here. In the pure auto business, revenue rose two percent to nearly $20 billion.
As a result, Tesla’s net profit increased 17 percent year over year to approximately $2.17 billion. Adjusted earnings per share were 72 US cents – analysts were expecting just 58 US cents.
This content was automatically translated from German to Turkish.
