Tesla $TSLA ( ▼ 0.07% ) popped after Elon Musk threw fresh gasoline on two of the company’s biggest long-term narratives: humanoid robots and self-driving expansion.
He said Tesla’s Optimus robot should be ready for public sales “by the end of next year,” once the company is confident it has “very high reliability” and “very high safety,” with a functionality level that’s actually usable in the real world.
Optimus timeline keeps slipping, but the vision keeps getting bigger
If this sounds later than what Musk used to say, that’s because it is.
Back in 2024, he predicted Optimus would be for sale in 2025. Now the expectation is shifting out, with Musk outlining a more gradual rollout:
Robots doing simple tasks inside Tesla factories right now
More complex industrial tasks by the end of this year
Public sales by end of next year
Broader consumer availability implied closer to 2027
He also repeated the long-term thesis: a world with “billions” of AI robots that eventually “saturate all human needs.”
FSD approvals could be next month in Europe and China
The other catalyst was Musk talking up regulatory progress for Tesla’s supervised Full Self-Driving.
He said Tesla is hoping to get supervised FSD approval in:
Europe next month
China around a similar timeline
And Musk made the implication clear: Europe is a major pain point for Tesla demand right now, and he believes delays in FSD approval are a key reason sales in the region have been weak.
Bottom line
This was classic Tesla fuel for the bull case:
Optimus is the “next trillion-dollar product” narrative
FSD approvals outside the US would reopen huge markets
Even if timelines slip, the optionality is still massive
The stock jumped because for Tesla investors, robots + autonomy is still the main story.