The Robotaxi Revolution Begins

Tesla delivered its strongest quarter ever, reporting $2.79 EPS against $2.41 expected and automotive margins returning to 23%. The real bombshell came during Elon Musk's closing remarks: unsupervised Full Self-Driving (FSD) has received regulatory approval in California and Texas, with nationwide rollout beginning Q1 2026. The long-awaited Robotaxi (formerly Cybercab) will launch in Austin and San Francisco this June with a starting price of $25,000. Musk revealed Tesla has already secured partnerships with three major ride-hailing platforms and expects Robotaxi to generate $1 trillion in annual revenue by 2030. The energy division also surprised with 48% growth, led by Megapack deployments reaching 15 GWh quarterly run-rate. Despite ongoing concerns about competition from Chinese EV makers, Tesla's vertical integration and software moat appear stronger than ever. The company's AI training cluster now contains over 100,000 H100 GPUs — larger than most countries' supercomputers.

The Numbers Don't Lie

Analysts immediately raised price targets with Morgan Stanley now at $450 and Ark Invest maintaining their $2,000 target for 2029. The Robotaxi network effect is expected to be devastating for competitors — once critical mass is achieved, utilization rates could reach 60-70% compared to human drivers' 30-40%. Insurance costs drop dramatically with zero accidents, and the vehicles pay for themselves in under a year. Tesla also announced the Optimus humanoid robot will enter limited production in 2026, with internal factories already using early units for battery cell handling. The combination of autonomous ride-hailing and humanoid robotics positions Tesla not just as a car company, but as the world's first AI robotics platform. Short sellers covering positions drove an additional 5% gain in after-hours trading.