Tesla $TSLA ( ▼ 0.07% ) ripped higher after Elon Musk said the company’s Robotaxis in Austin are now operating without a safety monitor inside the vehicle, which would mark a major milestone in Tesla’s autonomy roadmap.
Tesla has been testing driverless cars in the area for about a month, and Musk previously said safety drivers would be removed by the end of 2025. This update suggests that step has now happened.
What’s still unclear
The key detail missing is scope.
It’s not yet clear whether some Robotaxis are operating without a driver, or all of the roughly 51 vehicles Tesla is running in Austin.
But markets clearly liked the implication either way.
Why Wall Street cares so much about this
This is not just a technical update, it’s a valuation trigger.
Morgan Stanley said the removal of safety drivers is a “precursor to personal unsupervised FSD rollout,” which many investors view as the single biggest unlock in Tesla’s long-term bull case.
If Tesla can scale unsupervised autonomy, it shifts the narrative from “car company” to “autonomous network.”
Davos framing: Musk is going all-in
At Davos on Thursday, Musk poured gasoline on the hype by saying:
“Self-driving cars is essentially a solved problem at this point.”
Bottom line
This is the exact kind of milestone that forces the market to reprice Tesla, because it’s a step closer to the endgame: unsupervised FSD and eventually a scalable robotaxi network.