- Tesla began public robotaxi rides in Austin without a front-seat safety monitor, announced by Elon Musk on X.
- Ashok Elluswamy clarified on X that some vehicles will still carry safety monitors and that their share will decline over time.
- Musk said self-driving is “essentially solved” in the U.S. and urged applicants for the company’s AI team as it pursues humanoid robot autonomy.
- Fund manager Gary Black called the safety-monitor removal a positive catalyst, while noting valuation concerns about TSLA.
- TSLA shares rose about 4% at the time of reporting and the stock has gained roughly 8% over the past 12 months.
Tesla has begun offering public robotaxi rides in Austin without a front-seat safety monitor, CEO Elon Musk announced. In his post, Musk wrote on X that the company “Just started Tesla Robotaxi drives in Austin with no safety monitor in the car. Congrats to the TeslaAI team!” and he has said elsewhere that self-driving is "essentially solved" in the U.S..
A senior executive, Ashok Elluswamy, clarified the rollout on X, saying the initial unsupervised vehicles will be mixed with supervised cars and the unsupervised ratio will grow over time. His full post is available where Elluswamy posted on X, including the line "Starting with a few unsupervised vehicles mixed in with the broader robotaxi fleet with safety monitors, and the ratio will increase over time."
Musk also called for candidates to join Tesla’s AI team as the company shifts resources toward autonomy and humanoid robots, noting that work on the Optimus project will be far more difficult. He said "Solving real-world AI for Optimus will be 100X harder than cars."
Investment reaction was mixed. Fund manager Gary Black praised the Austin move as a key catalyst and said he believes Tesla will solve unsupervised autonomy, but cautioned about valuation. He wrote that removal of safety monitors signals scale, and added, "We continue to like TSLA the company; we don’t like $TSLA the stock."
Market and retail signals moved upward: TSLA shares traded about 4% higher at the time of reporting, and social sentiment on retail platforms shifted from neutral to bullish. The stock has risen roughly 8% in the last 12 months.
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