Tesla has reportedly landed on a set date for its launch of the Robotaxi platform in Austin, Texas.

Bloomberg is reporting that Tesla has discussed June 12 internally, and there is still the potential for it to change.

The date comes after Tesla tested the driverless ride-sharing platform on public roads in Austin, and has been for several weeks. The report said that Tesla started doing it this week, and CEO Elon Musk confirmed on X by saying:

“For the past several days, Tesla has been testing self-driving Model Y cars (no one in driver’s seat) on Austin public streets with no incidents.”

The report indicates a person was in the vehicle, but not in the driver’s seat. Instead, a Tesla engineer sat in the passenger seat of a Model Y, “which drove autonomously with no remote operation.”

Tesla set for ‘golden age of autonomous’ as Robotaxi nears, ‘dark chapter’ ends: Wedbush

The testing has successfully gone on a month ahead of the company’s deadline of June 30.

Currently, Tesla’s plans for the initial rollout of the suite are extremely limited. There will only be ten vehicles at first, and the riders will be invited by the company. This is an effort that puts safety at the forefront of this trial period, and will expand as time goes on.

It could be sooner than expected, as Musk also said that anyone would likely be able to visit Austin and take a ride in the Robotaxi by the end of June.

For the past several days, Tesla has been testing self-driving Model Y cars (no one in driver’s seat) on Austin public streets with no incidents.

A month ahead of schedule.

Next month, first self-delivery from factory to customer.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 29, 2025

The report and subsequent announcement come after many media outlets reported Tesla was not testing Robotaxi in any capacity. Some had even considered the project a total failure even before the June launch date, a typical tone most media take with the company.

Tesla Robotaxi deemed a total failure by media — even though it hasn’t been released

Tesla has not been great at meeting its own timelines, but it has been adamant that it would reach this June deadline for several months.

Now that it appears Tesla is at an all-systems-go mentality for the Robotaxi launch, it will be interesting to see how quickly it can expand from its initial testing.

Shares are up just over 1.3 percent as of 10:30 a.m. on the East Coast. They are up 24 percent over the past 30 days, and down just 4.5 percent for the year so far.

The Robotaxi fleet will help to bolster Tesla’s position as a leader in autonomy, something it has already essentially achieved through its successful operation of the Supervised Full Self-Driving suite.

Pension fund leaders with Tesla investments are urging the company’s board to mandate Elon Musk dedicate at least 40 hours per week to the electric vehicle maker, citing a looming crisis.

The group holds a combined 7.9 million TSLA shares and expressed alarm over Tesla’s challenges in a Wednesday letter to board chair Robyn Denholm.

“Tesla’s stock price volatility, declining sales, as well as disconcerting reports regarding the company’s human rights practices, and a plummeting global reputation are cause for serious concern,” the investors wrote.

They attributed many issues to Musk’s external activities, including his role in the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The pension fund leaders criticized the board for failing to ensure Musk’s “full-time attention” on Tesla. The group includes the SOC Investment Group, the American Federation of Teachers, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, and Oregon State Treasurer Elizabeth Steiner.

The investors’ letter comes as the Tesla board plans for Elon Musk’s next compensation plan, following the Delaware Court of Chancery’s 2023 ruling to rescind his $56 billion 2018 package. Besides a 40-hour workweek requirement, they also called for a clear succession plan and limits on directors’ external board commitments to strengthen governance. The letter highlighted concerns about board independence. Tesla recently added former Chipotle CFO Jack Hartung, who previously worked with Musk’s brother, Kimbal Musk, as a Tesla board member.

The group’s letter reveals where the position of some investors as Elon Musk forges ahead with Tesla’s future plans. Musk’s broader ambitions for Tesla were evident during the Q4 and FY 2023 earnings call, where he envisioned the company as an AI and robotics powerhouse with “truly immense capability and power.” He emphasized his desire for 25% voting control to maintain influence without complete control.

“You know, we’ve had a lot of challenges with Institutional Shareholder Services, ISS — I call them ISIS — and Glass Lewis, you know, which there’s a lot of activists that basically infiltrate those organizations and have strange ideas about what should be done,” Musk said.

As Musk plans to focus more on Tesla, alongside xAI and SpaceX, the investors’ demands underscore tensions between his expansive vision and shareholder expectations. With Tesla navigating stock volatility and reputational challenges, the board faces pressure to align Musk’s leadership with the company’s long-term stability.

Tesla analyst Gary Black of The Future Fund revealed today that his firm has sold its entire $TSLA holding, marking the first time since 2021 that it has not had a position in the company’s stock.

Black has been a skeptic of the company and relatively pessimistic regarding some things many investors would consider catalysts, outlining his concerns and reasoning for selling the shares.

Much of Black’s reasoning concerns Tesla’s price-to-earnings ratio, delivery results and potential delivery figures for the future, and other near-term projects that he does not believe will yield as much value as others perceive.

We will break down each concern of Black’s below:

‘Disconnected from Underlying Fundamentals’

Black says that The Future Fund sold its holdings at $358 per share. The firm’s current price target is at $310, and he says it will remain there based on “our forecast of 2030 Tesla volumes of 5.4m and 2030 Adj EPS of $12.

Main Concern is P/E Ratio

The main concern Black and The Future Fund have is that TSLA “now sells at a 2025 P/E of 188x as earnings estimates continue to fall (-5% in the past week, -40% YTD) driven by weak YTD deliveries, including weak April results.”

Black says he believes quarterly deliveries will decline by 12 percent, and full-year by 10 percent.

This compares to Wall Street’s estimates of a 7 percent decrease for Q2 and a 5 percent year-over-year.

Robotaxi Skepticism

“We believe the risk/reward associated with the Austin robotaxi test remain asymmetrical to the downside,” Black writes in his post on X.

Tesla Robotaxi deemed a total failure by media — even though it hasn’t been released

Many believe the Robotaxi platform could be Tesla’s biggest catalyst moving forward, especially as other automakers do not seem to have even close to as robust a solution to self-driving as Tesla.

Tesla’s Affordable Models

Black says there are concerns the affordable model will be “a stripped-down Model Y priced lower and funded by lower costs rather than a new form factory that expands TAM.”

This is confusing, especially considering the cheaper price tag would expand the total addressable market (TAM) to begin with. The Model Y has been the best-selling vehicle in the world for the past two years.

Tesla still on track to release more affordable models in 1H25

Introducing an even lower-cost model with some missing features would still likely be a significantly more attractive option than a base model ICE vehicle, especially because the value Full Self-Driving provides would make the car more beneficial.

“This increases odds that FY’25 estimates decline further, risking a repeat of 2023-2024, when TSLA reduced EV prices supported by lower costs, and TSLA saw little or no incremental volume growth,” he finishes with.