• Tesla executive Ashok Elluswamy clarified in a post on X that some vehicles in the company’s fleet will continue to have a safety monitor for the time being.
• Fund manager Gary Black believes removal of safety monitors in Austin robotaxis is a key positive catalyst. 
• Musk on Thursday also called for interested candidates to apply to join Tesla’s AI team as it gears up to solve autonomy in humanoid robots.

Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk said on Thursday that the company has opened robotaxi rides without a safety monitor in the front seat for public riders in Austin, marking a major step forward in the company’s autonomous driving story.

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“Just started Tesla Robotaxi drives in Austin with no safety monitor in the car. Congrats to the TeslaAI team!” Musk wrote in a post on social media platform X. The announcement comes on the heels of the CEO saying in an appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that self-driving is “essentially solved” in the U.S.

The billionaire CEO also called for interested candidates to apply to join Tesla’s AI team as it gears up to solve autonomy in humanoid robots. “Solving real-world AI for Optimus will be 100X harder than cars,” Musk said.

Tesla executive Ashok Elluswamy clarified in a post on X that some vehicles in the company’s fleet will continue to have a safety monitor for the time being, although they will be reduced in time.

“Starting with a few unsupervised vehicles mixed in with the broader robotaxi fleet with safety monitors, and the ratio will increase over time,” Elluswamy said.

TSLA shares traded 4% higher at the time of writing.

Tesla’s Robotaxi Dreams

Tesla initially deployed a few of its Model Y vehicles with its full self-driving technology as robotaxis in Austin. The vehicles had a safety monitor in the front seat at the time to take over when required.

Tesla is currently attempting to pivot into artificial intelligence and robotics with investments into autonomous driving and robotics. The company is hopeful that FSD will allow for autonomous driving in time for all individual drivers and also to run a robotaxi fleet.

Earlier today, Musk said at the World Economic Forum that robotaxis will be very “widespread” in the U.S. by the end of this year. “Self-driving cars is essentially a solved problem at this point,” he said.

Musk also noted that the company’s humanoid robots called Optimus are currently performing simple tasks at the company’s factories and will be available to sell to the public by the end of 2027.

Fund Manager Cheers Announcement

The Future Fund Managing Partner Gary Black cheered the latest announcement.

“I’ve long maintained that removal of safety monitors in Austin robotaxis is a key positive catalyst, since it signals imminent scale up of unsupervised autonomy elsewhere,” Black said.

The fund manager said that he has always believed that Tesla would solve unsupervised autonomy but noted that Tesla stock is currently trading at about 200 times its profit-to-earning ratio while competition such as Alphabet Inc’s Waymo and Baidu Inc are already offering fully autonomous rides.

“We continue to like TSLA the company; we don’t like $TSLA the stock,” Black said.

How Did Stocktwits Users React?

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around TSLA shares rose from ‘neutral’ to ‘bullish’ territory over the past 24 hours, while message volume jumped from ‘low’ to ‘normal’ levels.

A Stocktwits user now sees the stock breaching the $500/ share mark.

Another highlighted that while Waymo might have a headstart over Tesla, the EV giant has the potential to scale its fleet unlike the Alphabet unit which relies on other automakers for their fleet vehicles.

TSLA stock has gained 8% over the past 12 months.

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