Tesla: Robotaxi Optimism
Wall Street analysts from Bank of America and Morgan Stanley have recently grown more constructive on Tesla’s robotaxi thesis, offering renewed investor optimism about autonomous expansion. (aol.com) Tesla also reported deliveries of 358,000 vehicles in Q1 2026 — up 6% year‑over‑year but shy of the 365,000 consensus — and code in software update 2026.8.6 hints the cabin camera is now estimating driver age as part of advanced driver‑monitoring work. ( )
Tesla’s robotaxi story got a fresh lift in April after Bank of America and Morgan Stanley turned more upbeat on how fast the service could expand. (aol.com) Tesla reported on April 2 that it delivered more than 358,000 vehicles in the first quarter of 2026, while producing more than 408,000 and deploying 8.8 gigawatt-hours of energy storage. (ir.tesla.com) That delivery total was about 6% above a year earlier, but below Wall Street expectations of roughly 365,645 vehicles, according to analyst consensus reports cited by market coverage. (electrek.co) A robotaxi is a car that drives paying riders without a human driver, and Tesla’s stock case increasingly rests on whether it can turn that idea into a large fleet. Morgan Stanley said in March that scaling an unsupervised robotaxi fleet was Tesla’s most important stock catalyst in 2026. (ca.investing.com) Morgan Stanley said after meetings and a factory tour in Texas that it was “incrementally more positive” on robotaxi and Cybercab production, with start of production still on track for April. Bank of America also argued Tesla’s camera-only approach could offer cost and scale advantages if the system works reliably. (ca.investing.com) (aol.com) Tesla has been running a limited robotaxi service in Austin since June 2025, and reporting in late March said the company had expanded the service area there. The same report said only about 4 to 8 Model Y vehicles were operating without an in-car safety monitor and that they were still remotely supervised. (electrek.co) The technical work behind that push appears to be widening inside the car as well as outside it. Code found in Tesla software update 2026.8.6 indicates the cabin camera can now estimate a driver’s age, a sign the company is adding more detailed driver-monitoring functions. (driveteslacanada.ca) Driver monitoring uses an inward-facing camera to check whether the person behind the wheel is attentive, much like a proctor watching for distraction during an exam. Tesla has used cabin cameras for attention checks before, and the new age-estimation code suggests the system may be learning to classify occupants more precisely. (driveteslacanada.ca) (www.notateslaapp.com) Skeptics have pointed to Tesla’s history of missed autonomy timelines and to the small scale of the current Austin operation. Forbes reported on April 8 that Tesla has often overstated self-driving progress, while Electrek’s March 31 report described the active fleet as a handful of vehicles rather than a citywide network. (forbes.com) (electrek.co) For now, investors are weighing two numbers at once: 358,000 first-quarter deliveries that missed forecasts, and a robotaxi business that analysts say could matter more than car sales if Tesla can scale it beyond a test market. (ir.tesla.com) (aol.com)
