Elon Musk with a straight face: Tesla Robotaxi will cowl half of US inhabitants by finish of the yr

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Elon Musk claims that Tesla Robotaxi will cowl half of the US inhabitants by the tip of the yr and we will’t cease laughing.

Immediately, Tesla launched its Q2 2025 monetary outcomes.

Earnings are down 23% on falling electrical automobile gross sales and decrease margins, however Tesla’s inventory will not be crashing as a result of CEO Elon Musk is promising a return to earnings development by means of autonomous driving and humanoid robots.

We beforehand reported on how Tesla’s Robotaxi effort is a serious shift in technique for Tesla, which has been promising unsupervised self-driving in its buyer autos for years.

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As a substitute, the Robotaxi service consists of an inner fleet working inside a geo-fenced space, at present solely in Austin, Texas, and powered by teleoperation and in-car supervisors with a finger on a kill change always.

“I imagine half of the inhabitants of the US will probably be lined by Tesla’s Robotaxi by the tip of the yr.”

He added that he believes that regulatory approval would be the greatest hurdle, though Tesla’s present service requires a Tesla worker in every automobile, which is a serious hurdle to scaling.

Musk and Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s head of self-driving, each claimed that the Bay Space would be the first market the place Tesla plans to develop its Robotaxi service. Nonetheless, Elluswamy added that this system will initially have a driver within the driver’s seat.

This is sensible contemplating we discovered final week that Tesla has but to use for the correct permits to function an autonomous ride-hailing service in California.

Electrek’s Take

That is laughable. Who believes that? How can Elon say that with a straight face when Tesla solely has a joke of a system that requires supervision always?

For context, Tesla at present solely operates in just a little over half of Austin, Texas. Right here’s the record of all of the metro areas Tesla would wish to launch Robotaxi by the tip of the yr to cowl half of the US inhabitants:

Rank	Metro Space	Inhabitants	Cumulative Complete
1	New York	19.15 M	19.15 M
2	Los Angeles	12.68 M	31.83 M
3	Chicago	9.04 M	40.87 M
4	Houston	6.89 M	47.76 M
5	Dallas–Fort Value	6.73 M	54.49 M
6	Miami	6.37 M	60.86 M
7	Atlanta	6.27 M	67.13 M
8	Philadelphia	5.86 M	72.99 M
9	Washington, DC	5.60 M	78.59 M
10	Phoenix	4.83 M	83.42 M
11	Boston	4.40 M	87.82 M
12	Seattle	3.58 M	91.40 M
13	Detroit	3.54 M	94.94 M
14	San Diego	3.37 M	98.31 M
15	San Francisco	3.36 M	101.67 M
16	Tampa	3.04 M	104.71 M
17	Minneapolis–St. Paul	2.62 M	107.33 M
18	St. Louis	2.80 M	110.13 M
19	Denver	2.99 M	113.12 M
20	Baltimore	2.83 M	115.95 M
21	Orlando	2.76 M	118.71 M
22	Charlotte	2.75 M	121.46 M
23	San Antonio	2.60 M	124.06 M
24	Austin	2.42 M	126.48 M
25	Pittsburgh	2.43 M	128.91 M
26	Sacramento	2.42 M	131.33 M
27	Las Vegas	2.32 M	133.65 M
28	Cincinnati	2.26 M	135.91 M
29	Kansas Metropolis	2.19 M	138.10 M
30	Columbus	2.14 M	140.24 M
31	Cleveland	2.16 M	142.40 M
32	Indianapolis	2.12 M	144.52 M
33	San José	1.99 M	146.51 M
34	Virginia Seashore–Norfolk	1.76 M	148.27 M
35	Windfall	1.68 M	149.95 M
36	Milwaukee	1.57 M	151.52 M
37	Jacksonville	1.60 M	153.12 M
38	Raleigh–Durham	1.45 M	154.57 M
39	Nashville	1.43 M	156.00 M
40	Oklahoma Metropolis	1.42 M	157.42 M
41	Richmond	1.30 M	158.72 M
42	Louisville	1.28 M	160.00 M
43	Salt Lake Metropolis	1.26 M	161.26 M
44	New Orleans	1.23 M	162.49 M
45	Hartford	1.20 M	163.69 M
46	Buffalo	1.11 M	164.80 M
47	Birmingham	1.10 M	165.90 M