electrek – Elon Musk with a straight face: Tesla Robotaxi will cover half of US population by end of the year

See original article by Fred Lambert at electrek

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Elon Musk claims that Tesla Robotaxi will cover half of the US population by the end of the year and we can’t stop laughing.

Today, Tesla released its Q2 2025 financial results.

Earnings are down 23% on falling electric vehicle sales and lower margins, but Tesla’s stock is not crashing because CEO Elon Musk is promising a return to earnings growth through autonomous driving and humanoid robots.

We previously reported on how Tesla’s Robotaxi effort is a major shift in strategy for Tesla, which has been promising unsupervised self-driving in its customer vehicles for years.

Instead, the Robotaxi service consists of an internal fleet operating within a geo-fenced area, currently only in Austin, Texas, and powered by teleoperation and in-car supervisors with a finger on a kill switch at all times.

“I believe half of the population of the US will be covered by Tesla’s Robotaxi by the end of the year.”

He added that he believes that regulatory approval will be the biggest hurdle, even though Tesla’s current service requires a Tesla employee in each car, which is a major hurdle to scaling.

Musk and Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s head of self-driving, both claimed that the Bay Area will be the first market where Tesla plans to expand its Robotaxi service. However, Elluswamy added that the program will initially have a driver in the driver’s seat.

This makes sense considering we learned last week that Tesla has yet to apply for the proper permits to operate an autonomous ride-hailing service in California.

Electrek’s Take

This is laughable. Who believes that? How can Elon say that with a straight face when Tesla only has a joke of a system that requires supervision at all times?

For context, Tesla currently only operates in a little over half of Austin, Texas. Here’s the list of all the metro areas Tesla would need to launch Robotaxi by the end of the year to cover half of the US population:

Rank	Metro Area	Population	Cumulative Total
1	New York	19.15 M	19.15 M
2	Los Angeles	12.68 M	31.83 M
3	Chicago	9.04 M	40.87 M
4	Houston	6.89 M	47.76 M
5	Dallas–Fort Worth	6.73 M	54.49 M
6	Miami	6.37 M	60.86 M
7	Atlanta	6.27 M	67.13 M
8	Philadelphia	5.86 M	72.99 M
9	Washington, DC	5.60 M	78.59 M
10	Phoenix	4.83 M	83.42 M
11	Boston	4.40 M	87.82 M
12	Seattle	3.58 M	91.40 M
13	Detroit	3.54 M	94.94 M
14	San Diego	3.37 M	98.31 M
15	San Francisco	3.36 M	101.67 M
16	Tampa	3.04 M	104.71 M
17	Minneapolis–St. Paul	2.62 M	107.33 M
18	St. Louis	2.80 M	110.13 M
19	Denver	2.99 M	113.12 M
20	Baltimore	2.83 M	115.95 M
21	Orlando	2.76 M	118.71 M
22	Charlotte	2.75 M	121.46 M
23	San Antonio	2.60 M	124.06 M
24	Austin	2.42 M	126.48 M
25	Pittsburgh	2.43 M	128.91 M
26	Sacramento	2.42 M	131.33 M
27	Las Vegas	2.32 M	133.65 M
28	Cincinnati	2.26 M	135.91 M
29	Kansas City	2.19 M	138.10 M
30	Columbus	2.14 M	140.24 M
31	Cleveland	2.16 M	142.40 M
32	Indianapolis	2.12 M	144.52 M
33	San José	1.99 M	146.51 M
34	Virginia Beach–Norfolk	1.76 M	148.27 M
35	Providence	1.68 M	149.95 M
36	Milwaukee	1.57 M	151.52 M
37	Jacksonville	1.60 M	153.12 M
38	Raleigh–Durham	1.45 M	154.57 M
39	Nashville	1.43 M	156.00 M
40	Oklahoma City	1.42 M	157.42 M
41	Richmond	1.30 M	158.72 M
42	Louisville	1.28 M	160.00 M
43	Salt Lake City	1.26 M	161.26 M
44	New Orleans	1.23 M	162.49 M
45	Hartford	1.20 M	163.69 M
46	Buffalo	1.11 M	164.80 M
47	Birmingham	1.10 M	165.90 M

This is ridiculous. The lies are becoming increasingly larger and more brazen. We know what that means.

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See original article by Fred Lambert at electrek