TSLA
Cheap rides, expensive ambition
Tesla’s robotaxi rollout in Texas is still tiny — 69 vehicles, according to state data cited by Bank of America — but the strategy is starting to look less like chaos and more like a very deliberate coupon code. BofA says Tesla is pricing rides more than 20% below rivals as it tries to scale the network and pile up real-world driving data.
The trade-off is the whole story
That lower price comes with a catch: longer wait times. Tesla is averaging about ten minutes for a ride, while competitors are closer to two to three minutes. So if you’re thinking of robotaxis like Uber-without-the-driver, Tesla is still in the messy startup phase where growth sometimes looks like a line at the DMV.
Why Wall Street still cares
BofA kept its Buy rating and $460 price target, and the valuation math gets pretty lofty pretty fast. The bank’s sum-of-the-parts model stretches all the way out to 2040 and bakes in Tesla’s core auto business, robotaxi, FSD subscriptions, Optimus, and energy storage. In other words: this isn’t just a car stock anymore, at least not in the model.
Big picture
The robotaxi race is still early, and Tesla is trailing Waymo on fleet size and city count. But if Tesla really can use cheap rides to buy scale, data, and trust, the market may start treating autonomy less like a side quest and more like the main plotline.