During Tesla’s Q2 2025 earnings call, Elon Musk asserted in typical deadpan fashion that the company’s Robotaxi service will serve “half of the U.S. population by the end of the year.” Given that Tesla’s autonomous ride-hailing system only covers half of Austin, Texas, and still needs a Tesla employee in the car with their finger on a kill switch, it’s difficult to take this seriously.
The announcement follows Tesla’s dismal Q2 results, which showed a 23% decline in earnings as a result of declining EV sales and declining profit margins. Even though Tesla’s self-driving goals are still a long way off, Musk is playing into the narrative that humanoid robots and autonomous driving will propel the company’s next stage of expansion.
The so-called Robotaxi fleet is actually a small fleet of geo-fenced cars that are constantly supervised by humans, rather than the long-promised upgrade for customers’ current Teslas. Currently, it operates less like a scalable service and more like a glorified tech demo. However, Musk maintained that within five months, this internal service would somehow grow into a nationwide operation that serves more than 160 million Americans.
Musk’s optimism was echoed by Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s head of self-driving, who mentioned the Bay Area as the next expansion site. However, he acknowledged that a safety driver would still be used during the rollout. In the meantime, Tesla hasn’t even submitted an application for the licenses needed to drive autonomous cars in California, which is a necessary step before expanding the service.
Within a few months, Tesla would have to launch in at least 25 major cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Miami, in order to reach half of the country’s population. This claim pushes the limits of credibility given the operational overhead (including in-car supervisors), technological constraints, and regulatory obstacles.
In fact, online commenters’ laughter was the most appropriate response to Musk’s audacious statement. This overhyped Robotaxi rollout may make the Cybertruck’s disastrous launch seem like a victory.
