Robotaxi Operators & Platforms

Tesla's third-quarter deliveries beat company-compiled analyst expectations by 5.3%, though they declined 2.1% from a year earlier, a drop partly cushioned by Q3 2025's tax credit boost. Seeking Alpha analyst Oliver Rodzianko said the biggest takeaway is that traditional EV demand remains resilient as Tesla pivots toward autonomous taxi services and humanoid robotics as its dominant operating models, while energy storage deployment numbers missed expectations. Rodzianko noted that Chinese rival BYD saw its battery-electric passenger-car sales rise 30.9% year-over-year in the third quarter, underscoring fierce competition in China. Analyst Alexander Grover argued the delivery number is a distraction, since Tesla's valuation assumes unsupervised self-driving at scale, and flagged that Alphabet's Waymo is running more than 500,000 paid driverless rides a week across 15 U.S. metros with LiDAR in its stack, while Tesla still does not disclose how many of its robotaxis run without a safety monitor.

AIxCrypto has agreed to acquire the $200M robotics arm of Faraday Future Intelligent Electric Inc. and will evolve into a pure-play robotics ecosystem company under the new name FF EAI Robotics Ecosystem Inc. The company's ticker will change from AIXC to FFR, and Faraday Future will become the majority shareholder of the new company, continuing to participate in the robotics business's potential value appreciation through its ownership interest. As part of the transition, Faraday Future will expand from an EV manufacturer to a robotaxi and EAI cabin technology operator, potentially connecting with Tesla's Cybercab network and bringing its EAI cabin technology to other smart vehicles. FFAI plans to adopt an upgraded operating model inspired by Berkshire Hathaway and Alphabet and expects to announce additional strategic upgrade plans for the new FFAI in the near term.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn, together with Chayatan Phromsorn, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Transport, and a delegation of executives, met with Masahiko Maeda, Chief Executive Officer for the Asia Region of Toyota Motor Corporation, to hear about the direction of automotive technology development and future mobility innovation, and to exchange views on cooperation in applying technology to suit Thailand's transport systems. In this discussion, Toyota presented its concept of transforming from an automaker into a mobility company, under the approach of mobility for all and carbon neutrality, remaining open to a wide range of energy technologies, including hybrid electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids, biofuel, hydrogen and fuel cells. It also presented autonomous driving technology that aims to reduce road accidents to zero through the combined work of in-vehicle technology, artificial intelligence, sensors, road users and infrastructure, as well as the development of the e-Palette automated shuttle, robotaxis, electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft known as eVTOL, and the Mobility Service Platform concept. Phiphat proposed that Toyota consider Thailand's potential as an agricultural country, which in addition to electrical energy also has raw materials from sugarcane, cassava and palm that can be developed into biofuel. He also invited Toyota to continue using Thailand as an important production and investment base, and invited Toyota executives to hold ongoing discussions with the Thai government, with the Ministry of Transport ready to coordinate cooperation and support the exchange of information among relevant agencies. Toyota stated that the key obstacle for hydrogen and fuel cells at present is the cost of hydrogen, which remains high, and that the major challenge is enabling hydrogen to be produced and supplied at a price suitable for practical use in the future.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has reaffirmed that the automaker has offered its Full Self-Driving system to legacy manufacturers through licensing deals, and that none have accepted so far. Musk backed the claim in a post on X on Monday, replying "Exactly" to Tesla investor Sawyer Merritt, who wrote that Tesla and Musk had for years openly invited other automakers to license FSD but that none of them have accepted. The exchange followed a post from Boom Supersonic CEO and founder Blake Scholl, who predicted Tesla FSD will be an in-house advantage for a couple of years before being offered to manufacturers via licensing deals as competitors ramp up autonomous efforts, comparing the move to Tesla's Supercharger network, which was initially limited to the automaker's own EVs before opening to other manufacturers. Musk made similar claims in November last year, saying the FSD system had been offered to legacy automakers but that they showed little interest, and that when they do reach out they tepidly discuss implementing FSD for a tiny program in 5 years. Tesla's FSD system has drawn criticism for its vision-only approach to autonomous driving, in contrast to the camera-plus-LiDAR approach common in several autonomous driving suites, and it does not offer full autonomy, requiring drivers to remain attentive and ready to take over. Tesla AI chief Ashok Elluswamy recently said the company will bet on a smarter FSD system rather than company-imposed ceilings, echoing Musk's July comments that FSD will become capable of being tailored to individual driver preferences.

Tesla received a BBB investment-grade rating from Fitch, completing the trio alongside Moody's and S&P, and shares gained to $376.25 Tuesday. The electric-vehicle and physical-AI company expects more than $25 billion in 2026 capital expenditures as it pours money into AI computing, data centers, production lines and AI-powered vehicles. That spending floor represents roughly 57% of the $43.52 billion in cash, investments and equivalents reported for the second quarter. The balance sheet is strong, but the investment bill is enormous, and Tesla's $376.25 share price stands 12.64% above its GF Value estimate of $334.02. Investment-grade status could widen Tesla's financing options just as Cybercab and Optimus demand serious capital, but it says nothing about future borrowing costs or eventual returns.

Morgan Stanley said SpaceX and Tesla are deepening their technological and operational ties as both companies pursue physical AI, the application of artificial intelligence to the real world through robotics, energy and manufacturing. Analysts led by Adam Jonas said the two Elon Musk-led companies share tech, talent and infrastructure in a shared mission of converting energy to intelligence, citing SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell's comments ahead of the company's IPO. Morgan Stanley counted 71 distinct mentions of Tesla in SpaceX's S-1 filing, with 34% referencing direct Tesla-SpaceX collaboration and 41% tied to governance considerations and related-party transactions. The analysts pointed to a joint chip factory called Terafab being built in Texas alongside Intel at a total construction cost reportedly exceeding $119 billion, and noted SpaceX purchased $506 million in Megapacks and $131 million in Cybertrucks from Tesla in 2025 to support its Colossus compute cluster. The two companies are also co-developing an agentic platform called Macrohard, and each is separately targeting 100 gigawatts of annual vertically integrated solar manufacturing capacity in the U.S. SpaceX supplies Tesla with compute projected to reach 4.9 gigawatts by the end of 2027 and 15.3 gigawatts of terrestrial capacity by 2031, along with Starlink satellite connectivity that Tesla is integrating across its vehicle lineup starting with Cybercab, while Tesla provides SpaceX with robots, energy storage technology and manufacturing expertise spanning more than 135,000 employees, more than six times SpaceX's headcount.

Goldman Sachs has cut its delivery forecast for Tesla, lowering its third-quarter projection to 435,000 vehicles from 490,000 and its fourth-quarter forecast to 475,000 vehicles from 515,000, citing weaker sales trends across the company's most important markets. The bank noted that monthly and weekly sales in China, the US, and Europe are tracking below earlier expectations. The new Q3 projection sits below the consensus estimate of 456,000 vehicles, while the new Q4 forecast remains above the consensus estimate of 462,000. With Tesla's core vehicle business under pressure, its investment case increasingly depends on autonomy initiatives, including the Full Self-Driving system and the Cybercab robotaxi, which is now offering services in Austin, Texas, but faces an NHTSA investigation into whether Tesla properly self-certified the vehicle as compliant with federal motor vehicle safety standards. According to Insider Monkey's database, the number of hedge funds holding Tesla shares fell to 116 in Q2 from 123 in Q1, and as of August 31, 74.2 million Tesla shares were sold short, representing 2.35% of the public float, with bearish bets up 7.27% from the previous reading.

Tesla and SpaceX are seeking a federal ruling that the Terafab name does not infringe trademark rights held by TERA-print, adding a legal fight to the company's planned $16.8 billion chip complex. Tesla filed three Terafab-related trademark applications in May, and the planned Texas operation would manufacture, package and test advanced logic and memory chips for Optimus robots, Cybercabs and SpaceX data centers. Tesla shares slipped roughly 1% to $362.84 on Friday. The stock trades 8.66% above its $333.92 GF Value, indicating investors still pay a premium for Tesla's long-term growth ambitions. The larger question is whether Tesla can turn the $16.8 billion capital commitment into reliable semiconductor output, since bringing chip production in-house adds execution risk around yields, utilization, engineering talent and manufacturing discipline.

Tesla faced a September 30 deadline to explain to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration how its Cybercab satisfies federal vehicle-safety requirements. The agency wants details on Tesla's self-certification process, including whether temporary human-driving controls or other equipment were used to establish compliance, and is also seeking information about operating restrictions such as speed, geographic boundaries and time-of-day limits. The questions go straight to the Cybercab's unconventional design, which operates without a traditional steering wheel, pedals or mirrors. Tesla delivered 480,126 vehicles in the second quarter and has already begun Cybercab production, but does not yet provide standalone Cybercab revenue figures, making regulatory progress one of the clearest near-term markers for the program. Tesla shares gained approximately 2.0% to $363.75, a level that trades 8.92% above the GF Value estimate of $333.97.

Elisa de Martel, formerly chief financial officer at Alphabet's autonomous vehicle company Waymo, has been hired as CFO of self-driving startup Wayve. Outgoing CFO Max Warburton, who held the role since 2024, is moving into a strategic advisory position supporting the company's leadership team. De Martel, who will be based in Sunnyvale, California, served as Waymo's CFO from 2022 to January 2026, a period when the company began commercial operations in several cities and raised $5.6 billion in a Series C round led by its parent company that pushed its valuation above $45 billion. She previously was CFO at industrial-grade 3D printing company Carbon and spent 11 years as manufacturing finance director at Apple. Wayve, founded in 2017 and now valued at about $8.5 billion, has raised $3.2 billion to date and has partnerships with automakers including Nissan and Stellantis; it recently launched public rides in London with a human safety operator on board, with Tokyo expected to follow soon.

Autonomous vehicle company May Mobility is merging with a special purpose acquisition company and will become publicly traded, a deal that could raise more than $300 million at a valuation of $1.4 billion. May Mobility said Wednesday the merger is with ACP Holdings Acquisition Corp., a SPAC established by Houston, Texas-based investment management company Atlas Credit Partners. The transaction will involve a $120 million private investment in public equity, plus up to $217 million from a trust account maintained by ACP Holdings, though SPAC shareholders may redeem their stock at the time of the merger and reduce the amount going to May Mobility. Once the merger is complete, May Mobility said it will be the first public company in the U.S. focused entirely on autonomous ride-hailing vehicles, setting it apart from Tesla, Rivian, Alphabet's Waymo, and trucking-focused Aurora and Kodiak. Founded in 2017, May Mobility operates autonomous Toyota Siennas in three U.S. locations, has a partnership with Lyft in Atlanta, and offers rides in Eden Prairie and Grand Rapids, Minnesota; it generated around $10 million in revenue last year with a cash burn of around $93 million, has offered more than 550,000 paid autonomous rides covering more than 1 million miles, recently began its first trial deployment in Japan, and plans commercial launches in Arlington, Texas, with Uber at the end of this year or in early 2027. May Mobility said it will use the proceeds for research and development, especially around removing its safety drivers, supply chain investments to reduce bill-of-materials costs, and new geographic deployments it expects to announce later this year.

Tesla shares have fallen 20.71% year to date, but Wedbush analyst Dan Ives maintains a $600 bull-case target that implies roughly 70% upside by valuing the company as an AI and robotics platform rather than an automaker. Tesla currently trades at $356.58 against a Wall Street consensus target of $390.09, an implied gain of about 9%, with the consensus drawn from 34 analysts on EPS and 45 on revenue. The bull case rests on Full Self-Driving software economics with gross margins above 80%, licensing of the autonomy stack to rival OEMs, and an autonomous and AI ecosystem Ives values at over $1 trillion in market cap, alongside Robotaxi operations in seven U.S. markets with more than 380,000 unsupervised miles and nearly 1.5 million paid FSD customers globally. The bear case is well armed: Q2 2026 revenue rose 25.5% to $28.24 billion but non-GAAP EPS of $0.33 missed estimates by 38.51%, operating margin collapsed to 1.4%, free cash flow turned negative at $1.09 billion, and 2026 CapEx is expected to exceed $25 billion. FY2026 EPS estimates have drifted from $2.11 to $1.77 in sixty days, with 18 downward revisions against 7 upward in the trailing 30 days, while the stock carries a forward P/E of 154. In the broader auto complex, General Motors trades at $85.37, up 5.68% year to date with a target of $101.64, and Rivian trades at $15.54, down 21.16% year to date with a target of $19.23, the group's biggest implied upside at about 24% on its R2 launch and Uber robotaxi partnership.

Chinese autonomous driving technology company Pony.ai unveiled a fully electric truck equipped with Level 4 autonomous driving capabilities, allowing driverless operation under specific conditions, on the 14th at the IAA Transportation commercial vehicle trade fair that opened in Hanover, Germany. The vehicle announced was developed jointly with Chinese state-owned automaker GAC Group, and mass production will begin in the second half of this year. The company also revealed that it is in discussions with European governments and potential customers regarding road testing in Europe. Vice President Hua Xin, who heads the robotruck business, said, "We have already approached multiple ports and several governments about this issue," noting that the company is focusing on markets with high labor costs or facing severe labor shortages, and added, "Europe is definitely an important market for robotrucks." Pony.ai currently operates about 200 Level 4 autonomous trucks in China, some of which run fully driverless, but few countries in Europe have established systems or regulations permitting test runs of autonomous vehicles. In a statement, the company said it plans to expand its robotruck business into European and Middle Eastern markets within the next two years, and it is also advancing its robotaxi business outside China, conducting test operations in multiple European cities including Zagreb, the capital of Croatia.