Tesla Robotaxi Mileage Falls Despite Expansion
Tesla reported a decline in quarterly robotaxi mileage despite expanding its autonomous vehicle operations to six cities across Texas and Florida. During an earnings call, CEO Elon Musk and executives tempered expectations while highlighting ongoing growth. Concurrently, Tesla posted weakening profits that missed Wall Street projections, prompting a steep drop in its stock price.
Key points
- Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, tempered expectations for the company's robotaxi program during an earnings call despite highlighting ongoing expansion into new cities.
- Tesla executives stated that unsupervised robotaxis have covered 380,000 miles across six cities in two states, with miles allegedly growing at 10 percent weekly.
- Data released by Tesla shows that quarterly robotaxi mileage for paying customers fell from roughly 1.1 million miles in the first quarter to about 700,000 miles in the second quarter.
- Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla's head of AI, defended the company's camera-only sensor approach and criticized competitors utilizing lidar technology.
- Tesla experienced weakening core business profits that underperformed Wall Street expectations, resulting in the company's stock plunging more than 13% in early trading.
Electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla reported a notable drop in quarterly robotaxi mileage even as the company expanded its autonomous vehicle services to six cities across Texas and Florida. According to charts released by the company on Wednesday, the fleet of Model Y SUVs carrying paying passengers covered approximately 1.1 million miles in the first quarter, which decreased to roughly 700,000 miles in the second quarter. The decline marks a roughly 36 percent drop quarter-over-quarter.
During an earnings call, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and other executives sought to temper expectations for the autonomous program's timeline. Musk stated that the company is scaling as fast as humanly possible while prioritizing safety, noting the program involves both unsupervised and supervised vehicles. Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla's head of AI, defended the automaker's camera-only hardware approach and criticized industry competitors relying on lidar sensors. Independent analysis of the data indicates that despite cumulative figures showing growth between August 2025 and June 2026, quarterly performance actually moved in reverse.
The contraction in robotaxi mileage coincided with broader financial pressures at the company. Tesla posted weakening profits in its core automotive business that failed to meet Wall Street expectations. Following the earnings release and financial disclosures, Tesla's stock price plunged by more than 13 percent in early trading on Thursday, highlighting investor concerns over the commercial timeline and performance of the autonomous fleet.
Sources
The WireByte editorial team synthesises technology news from multiple primary sources, verifies the facts, and links every source. Articles are produced with AI assistance and reviewed under our editorial policy.