How Tesla's Robotaxi Service Looks 3 Months After Launch

It has been three months since Tesla TSLA officially rolled out its robotaxi service, and the company is making good progress in expanding its footprint. The services were first introduced in Austin, TX, on June 22, and marked a new chapter for Tesla as customers began taking driverless ride-hailing rides in Model Y vehicles. While the cars are backed by safety monitors, the launch was still a significant step toward CEO Elon Musk’s bold vision of an autonomous future.

After Austin, Tesla extended its program to California, with operations in the San Francisco Bay Area. California has long been a hub for autonomous vehicle testing, and Tesla’s move into the state was expected. What stands out is how Tesla has structured its operations. In Texas, the safety monitor initially rides in the passenger seat, but switches to the driver’s seat when the car enters highways. In California, however, regulators require the monitor to remain in the driver’s seat at all times.

In the second week of this month, the company gained approval to test its robotaxi platform in Nevada. And on Friday, it secured approval from Arizona’s Department of Transportation to operate on public roads. With Arizona now on board, Tesla has secured testing rights in four states within three months of its public launch. The momentum has been good so far. Musk aims to reach half of the U.S. population with robotaxi access by year-end, betting the company’s future on autonomous vehicles and pitching robotaxis as the next growth engine.

Still, scaling to Musk’s ambitious vision will require consistent wins with regulators, strong safety performance, and growing public trust in a world where robotaxis are still in very early stages. The company also recently proposed a massive $1 trillion pay package for Musk, linking it to bold targets, including 10 million Full Self-Driving subscriptions and 1 million robotaxis in commercial use. 

Unlike smaller autonomous driving startups, Tesla has a unique advantage — its strong brand and a vast fleet of vehicles already equipped with self-driving hardware. This gives the company the ability to deploy at scale once regulatory approvals line up.

TSLA’s Competitors in the Robotaxi Space

Alphabet’s GOOGL Waymo is the most established name in the robotaxi business. Backed by Alphabet’s billions of dollars and partnerships with automakers and ride-hailing platforms, Waymo has quietly built a wide lead. The company already runs fully driverless Level 4 services in cities such as Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Austin and Atlanta. More recently, it expanded into Denver and Seattle. Waymo delivers around 250,000 paid rides every week, a scale far beyond its competitors.

Amazon’s AMZN Zoox made headlines this month as it officially began offering robotaxi rides in Las Vegas. For now, the rides are free, limited to a few locations. These are expected to be expanded soon across the city. This marks a significant milestone for Amazon, which bought Zoox in 2020 for $1.3 billion and has been quietly building toward this moment for five years.With its fresh approach to design and strong backing from Amazon, Zoox is positioning itself as a challenger to companies like Waymo and Tesla.

The Zacks Rundown on TSLA Stock

Shares of Tesla have rallied around 80% over the past six months.

In the past four quarters, the company surpassed the earnings estimates twice for as many misses.

See how the Zacks Consensus Estimate for TSLA’s earnings has been revised over the past 90 days.

The Wall Street average target price for Tesla stock implies a downside of 28.2% from current levels.

Tesla stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) and has a Value Score of D.

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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