Autonomous Vehicles & Robotaxi

Tesla Inc. has begun replacing its "Full Self-Driving (Supervised)" branding with "Tesla Assisted Driving" across its European websites, following criticism from German officials that the FSD name was potentially misleading because the system still requires driver supervision. Tesla watcher Sawyer Merritt first flagged the live branding change on X on Oct. 8, and Not a Tesla App subsequently reported that Tesla had adopted the new name across the continent. Germany's Federal Ministry of Transport had said two days earlier that Transport Minister Steffen Bilger wants Tesla's system approved across Europe "in a timely manner," calling the FSD name "somewhat misleading" since the system does not take over the complete driving task and drivers must remain attentive. Tesla offered the rename during talks with German officials over technical and liability issues, Reuters reported, and CEO Elon Musk welcomed Germany's backing with "Danke Schön!" as the company's European approval push gained momentum. The approval remains contested: Reuters reported Germany supports allowing the system to operate up to 10% above detected speed limits, while France and Sweden objected, pushing an EU vote from October to at least December, and eight EU countries had approved the system by Wednesday, with Slovakia saying Thursday it expected to become the ninth within days.

Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa said Friday that the automaker's partnership with British startup Wayve could reduce development times and costs for advanced driver-assistance systems. Speaking alongside Wayve CEO Alex Kendall at the Wave technology event in Turin, Filosa said scale would be crucial to making hands-free driving affordable and speeding up adoption, pointing to level 2++ driving assistance technology that allows hands-off driving while still requiring driver supervision. He said cutting development timelines, currently around 24 months for Stellantis, was a key benefit of working with technology partners. Stellantis announced the partnership with Wayve in May to integrate the startup's AI-powered driving software into its STLA AutoDrive platform, with the first product launch targeted for 2028 in North America. Kendall said Stellantis' portfolio of brands, including Jeep, Fiat, Peugeot and Maserati, offered an opportunity to tailor autonomous driving characteristics across different vehicles while using the same underlying AI system, and at the Turin event the two companies demonstrated hands-free driving in Fiat 500e and Maserati Grecale development vehicles.

Slovakia is expected to approve Tesla's Full Self-Driving system, potentially making it the ninth European Union country to authorize the driver-assistance technology, according to Reuters. Transport Minister Jozef Raz said Slovakia would formally communicate its decision to the Netherlands, where the vehicle regulator RDW cleared Tesla's system earlier this year and acts as the primary regulatory authority for FSD in Europe. Raz said the decision was supported by data indicating lower accident rates, while emphasizing that drivers would remain responsible for their vehicles, and once the letter is delivered FSD would become available for use in Slovakia. The expected approval follows authorizations in countries including Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Denmark and Estonia, and an EU-wide vote could take place as soon as December, potentially opening the door to broader deployment across the region. Wider FSD adoption could support software monetization through paid subscriptions and expand Tesla's addressable customer base, though competition is intensifying from General Motors' Super Cruise and Rivian's Autonomy+.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department has decided to establish a dedicated unit next spring to investigate and deter accidents involving autonomous vehicles, according to an interview with the department on the 9th. The unit, tentatively named the Autonomous Driving Planning Office, will be placed within the Traffic Affairs Division of the Traffic Bureau and will handle responses to permit applications for Level 4 automation, in which the system performs all operations under specific conditions, as well as investigate accidents. Because determining the cause of autonomous driving accidents requires advanced knowledge and skills, the unit will accumulate investigative methods and provide support to other prefectural police forces. It also plans to conduct awareness campaigns to prevent accidents and inform manufacturers, and is considering upgrading it to a division in the spring of 2028. The establishment of such a dedicated unit is the first among police forces nationwide.

Tesla delivered 486,532 vehicles in the third quarter, comfortably above company-compiled consensus of 461,974 and down only 2% from a year earlier, strengthening the case that the company could return to annual delivery growth after two years of declines. The automotive recovery still matters because cars remain Tesla's largest revenue source, with European registrations up 43% during the first eight months of 2026, helping offset weaker U.S. demand following the loss of the $7,500 federal EV tax credit. Tesla's Q2 numbers showed why volume alone is insufficient: revenue reached $28.24 billion, but gross margin fell to 16.8% from 17.2%, while free cash flow turned negative by $1.1 billion and capital expenditures jumped 142% to $5.79 billion as Tesla funded AI infrastructure, robotaxis, and next-generation manufacturing. Tesla recently secured $30 billion of new credit facilities and expects 2026 capital spending above $25 billion, although the facilities were undrawn and the company did not plan to use them in 2026. Goldman Sachs kept a Neutral rating and $360 target on October 6, arguing that Tesla's physical-AI businesses, including robotaxis, FSD, and humanoids, will matter more for the stock than Q3 EPS, while consensus P/E falls from 217.93 times estimated 2026 earnings to 176.66 times in 2027 and 117.20 times in 2028 before dropping to 58.28 times in 2029.

Tesla is intensifying pressure on European regulators in 2026 to win approval for its Full Self-Driving software, while Elon Musk publicly backs his AI team's warning that compute shortages are hampering autonomous driving and robotics work. Musk stressed the importance of custom AI chips as supply constraints on general-purpose compute tighten, tying the regulatory push to Tesla's accelerated in-house silicon plans. The company is already producing over 464,000 vehicles and delivering more than 486,000 a quarter, so a broader EU green light would affect a large and growing installed base, whereas a slower or more restrictive approval path would leave more of those cars hardware rich but software under monetised, especially against the U.S. robotaxi rollout. Investors are watching whether Tesla secures wider EU-level approval for less supervised FSD use after the delayed voting process, and whether new Terafab backed AI5 and AI6 chips stay on schedule for 2027 to 2028. The autonomy story rests on FSD subscriptions and robotaxis turning today's heavy AI and capex buildout into higher margin software and services, but elevated capex and negative free cash flow remain a risk if approvals or rollouts fall behind the spending curve.

Lemonade announced that its Autonomous Car insurance now supports Tesla vehicles equipped with HW3 running the new FSD (Supervised) v14 Lite, extending coverage beyond the HW4 vehicles it previously served. Drivers in Arizona, Colorado, and Tennessee with HW3 and FSD v14 Lite can now save 30% on miles driven with FSD engaged, while Tesla drivers with HW4 and FSD v14.2 or newer continue to save 50% on those miles. FSD Lite is Tesla's adaptation of its v14 software for vehicles equipped with HW3, the company's previous-generation onboard computer, distilling the driving behavior of v14 into the camera and configuration of AI3. Lemonade Autonomous Car uses Tesla's Fleet API, with customer permission, to distinguish between FSD (Supervised) engaged and human-driven miles and price each accordingly. Shai Wininger, President and Co-Founder of Lemonade, said Tesla has done something remarkable with v14 Lite by taking the intelligence from its newest hardware and making it available to owners of older Teslas, adding that more states are coming soon. Tesla owners in Arizona, Colorado, and Tennessee can enroll at tesla.lemonade.com/fsd, with additional savings available when bundled with Lemonade Renters, Pet, or Home insurance.

Tesla has been assigned a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell), with the consensus earnings estimate for the current quarter falling 4.2% over the last 30 days to $0.45 per share, a year-over-year change of -10%. The consensus estimate for the current fiscal year stands at $1.76, down 5.1% over the past month, while the next fiscal year's estimate of $2.34 has slipped 1.3% and implies a change of +33.1% from what Tesla is expected to report a year ago. For the current quarter, the consensus sales estimate of $27.74 billion indicates a year-over-year change of -1.3%, with current and next fiscal year estimates of $105.9 billion and $118.26 billion representing +11.7% changes for each. In the last reported quarter, Tesla posted revenues of $28.24 billion, a year-over-year change of +25.5% and a surprise of +9.41% versus the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $25.81 billion, while EPS of $0.33 compared with $0.4 a year ago and produced a surprise of -34%. Over the past month, Tesla shares returned +3.4% versus the Zacks S&P 500 composite's +1.4%, while the Zacks Automotive - Domestic industry gained 4.7%, and Tesla carries a Zacks Value Style Score of D, indicating it trades at a premium to its peers.

A study by Columbia Business School executive and adjunct professor Len Sherman found that Uber riders paid 53% more per mile and waited 19% longer for their cars between Q1 2023 and Q1 2026. Sherman compiled 37,500 trips across Miami, Buffalo, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and Tampa, and wait times rose in five of those six cities, declining slightly only in Tampa. The analysis, cited in a Business Insider report, relies on driver data and excludes the time riders spend waiting to be matched with drivers. Uber denied the findings, calling the idea that it maximizes profits by increasing its take from fares false, while Sherman said the company charges riders more but pays drivers less. Separately, the Dara Khosrowshahi-led company announced last month it was cutting about 3,300 jobs, or 10% of its workforce, and it expects to commit more than $10 billion over the coming years to bring autonomous vehicles to market at scale, with Robotaxis set to launch on its platform in Japan in late 2026.

Tesla produced over 464,000 vehicles and delivered over 486,000 vehicles in the third quarter of 2026, while deploying 13.7 GWh of energy storage products. The Model 3 and Model Y accounted for 457,387 vehicles produced and 478,237 delivered, with the remaining 7,004 produced and 8,295 delivered coming from other models. Tesla will report its third quarter 2026 financial results after market close on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, followed by a live question and answer webcast at 4:30 p.m. Central Time. The company noted that vehicle deliveries and storage deployments represent only two measures of its financial performance and should not be relied on as an indicator of quarterly results.

Rivian Automotive plans to equip its first R2 vehicles with LiDAR and its internally developed RAP1 autonomy computer for employees by the end of 2026, while customer deliveries are now expected to begin in 2027, according to Electrek. The timeline marks a shift from the company's earlier communications, as Rivian introduced the third-generation RAP1 chip last December, rated at 1,600 sparse INT8 TOPS, and said at the time the technology would arrive in late 2026. The R2 launched in June without the new hardware, though a production-ready-looking R2 equipped with LiDAR was later spotted near Rivian's Irvine headquarters. Rivian VP of Investor Relations Chip Newcom said production of the RAP1 system will initially focus on the R2, with employees receiving the technology first before the rollout expands to customers in 2027, leaving the late 2026 target technically intact but initially applying only to employees. Rivian SVP of Autonomy and AI James Philbin said the rollout is expected to begin toward year-end, initially reaching early-adopter customers with R1 Gen 2 vehicles and later Gen 2 hardware revisions, including fleets Rivian classifies as Phase II and Phase III, with the company aiming to extend the technology across its full Autonomy+ fleet later next year. Separately, Lucid Group and Bolt have entered a strategic partnership to develop and launch autonomous mobility services across Europe, jointly developing an autonomous driving system-ready vehicle platform designed to support SAE Level 4 autonomous mobility, while France has begun testing two vehicles to evaluate Tesla's Full Self-Driving system after the Netherlands' road authority RDW provisionally approved it for Dutch roads in April.

Sell ratings on Tesla have fallen to 13.1% of 61 analyst recommendations, the lowest proportion since April 2023 and well below the 23.3% peak in January 2026, according to Bloomberg data cited in a GuruFocus report, as Wall Street grows more reluctant to bet against Elon Musk's push into artificial intelligence, robotics and autonomous driving even with the stock down 21% this year. TipRanks data points the same way, with Sell ratings dropping from five in May to four in June, two in July and just one in both August and September. The retreat is not a full bullish turn, however: Hold ratings climbed to their highest share of overall recommendations in more than two years, rising from 34 in May to 44 in September. Franklin Templeton's Max Gokhman told Bloomberg there is a bit of a don't bet against Musk vibe, noting that after long periods of missing deadlines a moonshot may materialize. The key test remains whether Tesla can turn its AI ambitions into meaningful revenue, and JPMorgan analyst Rajat Gupta recently cut his price target to $415 from $445 while keeping a Neutral rating, citing weaker-than-expected deliveries in China and the U.S.; the firm now expects 482,000 third-quarter deliveries, down from 516,000 previously, and 1.78 million vehicles in fiscal 2027.

XPENG delivered 41,256 vehicles in September 2026, a 5% increase over the prior month, with monthly deliveries of the XPENG L03 exceeding 10,000 units. For the third quarter of 2026, the company delivered a total of 118,390 vehicles, marking a 15% increase over the previous quarter. On September 17, 2026, XPENG officially launched the G9L, a premium flagship SUV featuring its latest technologies, in China, with a global launch set for Paris, France, in October. On September 22, 2026, XPENG began rolling out XOS 6.3.0 in China, powered by the latest version of its VLA 2.0 model. As of September 30, 2026, XPENG's self-operated charging network in China covered more than 430 cities and comprised over 4,000 stations, including more than 3,510 ultra-fast charging stations, with over 22,200 charging piles in total, and on September 15, XPENG opened its first-ever X-Energy megawatt ultra-fast charging station in Hong Kong.

Li Auto Inc. announced it delivered 31,817 vehicles in September 2026, bringing its cumulative deliveries to 1,833,651 as of September 30, 2026. In September, the company delivered over 10,000 units of the new Li L6 and expanded its battery electric vehicle lineup with the launches of the new Li MEGA Home and Li i9 Home. Li Auto also rolled out MACH VLA 2.0 via an over-the-air update to nearly one million Li AD Max vehicles powered by the Orin-X and Thor chips. In October, the company will launch the new Li i6 and make its debut in Europe at the Paris Motor Show, where it will introduce the Li i6 to the European market. As of September 30, 2026, Li Auto had 485 retail stores in 160 cities and 532 servicing centers and authorized servicing shops operating in 217 cities, along with 4,188 super charging stations equipped with 23,077 charging stalls in China.

Tesla has obtained $30 billion in bank credit facilities, a financing package that includes a $20 billion three-year delayed-draw term loan, an $8 billion five-year revolving credit facility, and a $2 billion 364-day revolver. The electric-vehicle maker said it does not currently plan to draw on the facilities in 2026, and the new arrangements raise its minimum liquidity requirement to $5 billion from $1 billion. Longtime Tesla bear GLJ Research analyst Gordon Johnson focused on the $20 billion delayed-draw facility, whose pledges drop to $10 billion on Sept. 29, 2027, and $5 billion on Dec. 29, 2027, before ending in March 2028, suggesting 2027 could be crucial for Tesla's financing needs as it invests in AI infrastructure, production, and vehicles. Tesla anticipates capital expenditures to top $25 billion this year, requiring more than $16.7 billion in the second half after $8.28 billion in the first, while its cash and short-term investments fell to $43.52 billion in June from $44.7 billion in March and second-quarter capital expenditures outpaced operating cash flow by $1.1 billion. Cathie Wood's ARK Investment Management bought 48,352 Tesla shares for $17.1 million through the ARK Innovation ETF at Tuesday's closing price, when the stock closed down 1.3% and was on track for a 4% September drop.

DoorDash announced a slate of new products at its Dash Forward 2026 event, including text-based ordering, a custom drone delivery system called DoorDash Air, a restaurant growth platform called DashOS, and new AI tools for its delivery workers. U.S. consumers on iOS can join a waitlist starting today to try ordering by text in beta, an extension of the company's in-app Ask DoorDash assistant. DoorDash Air will pilot first in Northern California with partners including Chipotle and Popeyes, and the company says about 80% of today's typical DoorDash restaurant orders are light and small enough for the aircraft to carry safely, with initial tests showing delivery times from restaurant to customer door averaging under 5 minutes. The company is also bringing brands including Macy's, Anthropologie, The North Face, Vans and Timberland to its marketplace, and said Dasher Returns, which charges consumers a flat $7.99 fee per eligible return, is live in select cities and expected to roll out nationwide in November. DashOS connects DoorDash's tools across Marketplace, direct ordering, reservations, loyalty, guest management and marketing, while the new DashBuddy assistant has already been used by over 200,000 Dashers and has resolved about 95% of questions from Dashers signing up or preparing for their first dash. DoorDash also introduced a connector for corporate ordering built on the Model Context Protocol, with companies able to join the beta waitlist starting September 30.