Tesla: The Robotaxi Business Model Faces Its First Test Autonomous Operations at Scale Tesla launched its robotaxi service in Austin in June 2025, marking a significant milestone in the company's evolution from electric vehicle manufacturer to autonomous mobility platform. Wednesday's earnings call provides the first opportunity for management to disclose concrete operational data. The market has long valued Tesla on the promise of high-margin recurring software revenue. The robotaxi service represents the first large-scale validation of this model. Critical metrics: - Fleet expansion and utilization: Initial deployment included 10 robotaxis with plans to scale to 1,000 vehicles within months. Progress on scaling and utilization rates will indicate whether unit economics support the business case
- Geographic rollout: Management outlined plans for autonomous coverage of half the U.S. population by year-end. Updates on California deployment signal execution capability
- Revenue contribution: Even preliminary figures would validate the high-margin software model underpinning Tesla's premium valuation
The timing amplifies significance: Tesla reported record Q3 deliveries of 497,099 vehicles. Demonstrating strength in both traditional automotive sales and autonomous services would validate execution across multiple business lines. The Strategic Pivot from Dojo to Cortex Tesla disbanded its Dojo team and shut down the custom supercomputer project in August, representing a fundamental shift in AI infrastructure strategy. This carries profound implications for Full Self-Driving development and the Optimus humanoid robot program. Dojo was positioned as Tesla's proprietary advantage—custom hardware optimized for training vision-based neural networks. CEO Elon Musk stated Dojo 2 had become "an evolutionary dead end," pivoting entirely to Cortex, which utilizes standard Nvidia H100 GPUs. The critical question centers on development velocity. Tesla indicated that Cortex, comprised of roughly 50,000 H100 GPUs, enabled significant improvements in FSD V13. If abandoning custom hardware actually accelerated development by leveraging mature Nvidia infrastructure, this strategic retreat transforms into a competitive advantage. | 
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