Tesla has commenced production of its Optimus humanoid robot at the Fremont, California factory, marking a significant step in its robotics ambitions. The company declared these units as the first production-quality robots, though CEO Elon Musk emphasized that production is in its early phase and forecasted a gradual and challenging ramp-up. Despite plans to produce 20,000 robots weekly by the end of 2027, Tesla acknowledges ongoing engineering refinements are necessary to ensure safety, durability, and AI capability suitable for a wide range of tasks.

In parallel, Tesla announced it will begin selling its Cybercab autonomous vehicle by the end of 2026, targeting primarily fleet customers rather than individual ownership. The Cybercab is a two-seat, gold-colored robotaxi without manual controls like a steering wheel. Though Tesla aims to expand its autonomous ride-hailing service, the initiative faces regulatory scrutiny from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is investigating whether the Cybercab complies with federal safety standards, especially since it lacks traditional vehicle controls required by existing regulations.

Tesla’s financial results for the third quarter reflect the costs of aggressively investing in AI, robotics, and autonomous driving. Revenue remained roughly flat at $28 billion, largely supported by EV sales of over 486,000 vehicles, but the company’s net income plunged 43% year-over-year to $787 million. Tesla experienced a 16% decline in solar and energy storage revenue, offset partly by a 33% growth in its services segment—including subscriptions to the Full Self-Driving advanced driver-assistance software—which hit record gross profitability for the quarter.

On the autonomous driving front, Tesla is still developing its unsupervised Full Self-Driving software, expected to roll out to customers’ vehicles in the second quarter of 2027, further delaying access for Tesla owners who have awaited this feature for years. Musk indicated that the Cybercab’s fully autonomous capabilities might become available to third-party fleet operators before Tesla owners receive a similarly capable software update. This strategy underscores Tesla’s focus on building an autonomous transport service rather than selling Cybercabs as privately owned vehicles.