Elon Musk’s Tesla is facing skepticism over its robotaxi plans amidst continued profit decline and diminishing sales, reports CNBC. “Look, we love robotaxis. And robots,” analysts at Canaccord Genuity told the publication after the electric vehicle company announced its second quarterly results. “But we love growth too, in the here and now. We need the P&L dynamics to turn,” the analysts added. The report further quoted analysts at Jefferies who described the Q2 earnings as “a bit dull”. Goldman Sachs, on the other hand, called Tesla’s robotaxi effort “still small” with limited technical data points.
Robotaxi hype meets regulatory reality
Tesla claims its robotaxi program has completed 7,000 miles in Austin using 10–20 Model Y cars, each supervised by a human in the front passenger seat and monitored remotely. However, its plans to launch in California may hit a wall, says CNBC report.According to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), Tesla hasn’t applied for the necessary permits to operate a driverless ride-hailing service. Under current approvals, Tesla is only allowed to operate a human-driven charter service in the state.By contrast, Alphabet’s Waymo is far ahead. On its earnings call, Alphabet said its Waymo vehicles have driven over 100 million autonomous miles and are active in more than 10 U.S. cities. Waymo is now significant enough that Alphabet added it to its quarterly revenue report under “Other Bets,” with $373 million in revenue last quarter.
Elon Musk warns of few rough quarters during Tesla Q2 earnings report
Speaking during the Q2 earnings report, Elon Musk warned that Tesla could face a few “rough” quarters following the expiration of the US tax credit for electric vehicles. The Tesla CEO said “We’re in this weird transition period where we’ll lose a lot of incentives in the US. We probably could have a few rough quarters. I’m not saying we will, but we could”. “But once you get to autonomy at scale in the second half of next year, certainly by the end of next year, I would be surprised if Tesla’s economics are not very compelling,” he added.Tesla reported a drop in profit for the third quarter in a row, with earnings falling to $1.17 billion, or 33 cents per share, down from $1.4 billion, or 40 cents per share, during the same period last year.On an adjusted basis, the company earned 40 cents per share, which was in line with Wall Street expectations. Revenue for the April to June quarter also declined — from $25.5 billion to $22.5 billion — but still came in slightly higher than analysts had forecast.
