Battered by tariffs and boycotts, Tesla really needs a successful robotaxi launch—and it needs to be on time

This was supposed to be an extraordinary year for Tesla—Elon Musk had insisted on it.

2025 was set to be “the biggest year in Tesla history,” Musk pronounced to investors at the end of January on the company’s earnings call. He maintained that Tesla would launch its paid robotaxi service in Austin in June to compete against Waymo, and that the EV maker would be rolling out the service into other cities before this year is up. He set an internal target to build 10,000 Optimus humanoid robots.