Elon Musk ignored internal Tesla analysis that found robotaxis might never be profitable: Report
Tesla Technoking Elon Musk pushed aside his company’s long-awaited $25,000 car, known as the Model 2, in exchange for the Cybercab — even after internal Tesla analysis showed the pedal-less, driverless vehicles “might never be profitable,” The Information reports.
Musk hoped he could sell millions of Cybercabs to individuals and for ride-sharing, but the internal analysis pegged those sales in the hundreds of thousands. Meanwhile, Tesla could have actually sold millions of the now defunct Model 2, the report said. Musk shot it down and refused to produce both the low-cost car and the robotaxi.
“Two-thirds of Tesla’s sales were overseas in 2024, but the analysts determined that Robotaxis would likely be largely confined to the U.S. — for some years at least — because of the difficulty of obtaining regulatory approval abroad. Major countries like China and Germany would regard it as competition for their domestic brands.
Markets like India, Vietnam and some countries in Latin America would welcome a compelling, cheap, mass-market EV, the analysis predicted, but not necessarily the Robotaxi. In terms of EVs, those markets have now been effectively ceded to Chinese EVs.
Tallying all of that up, they determined that the Robotaxi venture would struggle and could lose money over a long period of time.”
Musk has been very vocal about how he believes the company’s AI and robotics ventures “will be overwhelmingly the value of the company” someday, and the company’s exorbitant valuation rests on those yet-to-exist bets coming to fruition. But for now, Tesla derives the bulk of its revenue from cars that people drive, which The Information reports Musk has fallen out of love with.
Musk hoped he could sell millions of Cybercabs to individuals and for ride-sharing, but the internal analysis pegged those sales in the hundreds of thousands. Meanwhile, Tesla could have actually sold millions of the now defunct Model 2, the report said. Musk shot it down and refused to produce both the low-cost car and the robotaxi.
“Two-thirds of Tesla’s sales were overseas in 2024, but the analysts determined that Robotaxis would likely be largely confined to the U.S. — for some years at least — because of the difficulty of obtaining regulatory approval abroad. Major countries like China and Germany would regard it as competition for their domestic brands.
Markets like India, Vietnam and some countries in Latin America would welcome a compelling, cheap, mass-market EV, the analysis predicted, but not necessarily the Robotaxi. In terms of EVs, those markets have now been effectively ceded to Chinese EVs.
Tallying all of that up, they determined that the Robotaxi venture would struggle and could lose money over a long period of time.”
Musk has been very vocal about how he believes the company’s AI and robotics ventures “will be overwhelmingly the value of the company” someday, and the company’s exorbitant valuation rests on those yet-to-exist bets coming to fruition. But for now, Tesla derives the bulk of its revenue from cars that people drive, which The Information reports Musk has fallen out of love with.
