Tesla's once-bullish tone on robotaxis shifts

LOS ANGELES, July 23 : A year ago, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company's robotaxi network would expand at a "hyper-exponential rate" and be available to half the population of the U.S. by the end of 2025.On Wednesday's earnings call, Musk and his executive team struck a more guarded tone as they fielded analysts' questions about a slower-than-expected rollout.Since launching a small robotaxi pilot in Austin in June 2025, Tesla has expanded to only a handful of other cities, in Texas and Florida, with service often limited to outlying areas.Tesla said paying customers have traveled 2.5 million miles in its robotaxi service, including 380,000 miles in rides without an in-vehicle safety monitor. Tesla's unsupervised robotaxi miles remain well below the more than 220 million autonomous miles