SerpApi.Org
Tesla’s robotaxi plans have been of major interest to investors, but some are getting fed up with the company’s slower-than-expected rollout.
Retail investors specifically want to know why it’s taking so long for Tesla to even come close to meeting CEO Elon Musk’s forecasts. The company lets individual investors submit questions and vote on which ones deserve airtime on Tesla’s earnings call, and robotaxi delays are among the top areas of interest.
“Tesla has missed short-term guidance on robotaxi 3 earnings reports in a row, from 50% coverage of USA by end of 2025 to most recently 7 new cities in [the first half of 2026],” a retail investor wrote on Say Technologies’ shareholder platform. “What is keeping Tesla back from accomplishing these short-term goals that they’ve set for themselves?”
At least 1.4 million Tesla shares are tied to that question, which received 581 votes on the platform. Typically, Tesla’s head of investor relations reads out the top few questions to either be answered or dismissed by management, including Musk. The company’s second-quarter call will take place on Wednesday afternoon.
Robotaxi operations are central to how Wall Street values Tesla. While Tesla is still far away from hitting its targets, the company has made progress since it rolled out its service in June 2025 in its hometown of Austin, Texas.
Tesla now offers limited unsupervised rideshare services in at least three cities — Austin, Dallas and Houston — and supervised trips in California’s San Francisco Bay Area. On July 3, Tesla began allowing rideshare trips in Miami, with videos posted online showing that at least some vehicles are unsupervised.
Miami was one of five new cities Tesla announced as targets earlier this year, along with Orlando, Tampa, Phoenix and Las Vegas.
The company had initially aimed to launch operations in those cities in the first half of 2026, according to a January shareholder presentation. Tesla amended its presentation in April to signal that preparations are underway for those cities but did not give a timeline.
See more: Is Tesla succeeding in AI? Watch this for a clue.
Another question featured on the Say platform, represented by 5.2 million shares and 492 votes, asks Tesla to detail the “main constraints” to expanding robotaxi operations. It also seeks information about Cybercab production. The Cybercab is Tesla’s dedicated robotaxi platform. It went into production last quarter and is expected to slowly ramp up.
“The limiting factor for expansion is really rigorous validation, making sure things are completely safe. We don’t want to have a single accident or injury with the expansion of Robotaxi,” Musk said in April on a first-quarter earnings call.
Tesla shares are down 2% as of Monday afternoon and off 17% so far this year. In a note to clients last week, Oppenheimer analysts said they saw risk the stock could fall further as they anticipated “continued robotaxi timeline slippage” and complications with Tesla’s humanoid robot, Optimus, which is also of interest to investors.
The third-ranked question on the Say platform, based on votes, asks about the timeline for Tesla’s third-generation Optimus and sales volume for next year, as well as what the robot will be capable of. Musk has said Optimus will be Tesla’s “greatest” product and touted ambitious forecasts for the humanoid-robot market.
Tesla had initially planned to show off the robot earlier this year but delayed doing so, citing concerns that rivals could copy its designs. Musk said in April that Optimus works functionally.
See: Elon Musk has an ambitious new target for when Tesla’s Optimus robots will go on sale
