Alongside its third-quarter results, Tesla held its earnings call on October 21. Elon Musk, CFO Vaibhav Taneja and other executives spent most of it on autonomy, robots and spending plans. Management declined to take questions on a possible merger with SpaceX, which we covered earlier this week.
Robotaxi and Cybercab
- Musk said the Cybercab fleet in Austin has grown about tenfold since it launched roughly a month earlier.
- Autopilot chief Ashok Elluswamy said Cybercab launches in Dallas next month, with more cities to follow.
- Tesla expects some customer-owned Model Y cars to join the Robotaxi fleet around Q2 2027, and aims to deliver a limited number of Cybercabs to customers by the end of 2026. Musk said most Cybercabs will stay Tesla-owned.
- Taneja said Robotaxi revenue should become noticeable around Q2 2027 and potentially significant by Q3 or Q4 2027.
Optimus
Tesla has started early Optimus production on its high-volume Fremont line, where most of the equipment for a line designed for one million units a year is installed. Musk said reaching a rate of 20,000 robots a week will probably take at least a year, and that deliveries to customers outside Tesla are likely toward the end of 2027. He named the robot’s hand as the hardest remaining hardware problem and said the AI5 chip should go into Optimus around April 2027.
Spending and factories
- Tesla revised its 2026 capital expenditure guidance to about $20 billion, down from the “more than $25 billion” it had guided earlier, and said it secured capacity to borrow up to $30 billion that it doesn’t plan to draw this year.
- The research chip fab in Austin is expected to start commissioning equipment in the first half of 2027, with a first test chip targeted around May or June 2027.
- Musk repeated a goal of roughly 5 million vehicles a year by about 2030, and said Megapack production for 2027 is almost sold out.
Why it matters
The call reinforced that Tesla wants to be judged on autonomy and robotics more than car volumes. The timelines given here, especially for Optimus and customer-owned robotaxis, are company targets, and Tesla’s past autonomy targets have often slipped.
Source: Tesla Q3 2026 earnings call transcript (TradingKey).