Tesla expands Robotaxi service to Orlando, Tampa
It announced on July 21 that it would expand its driverless taxi service to Orlando and Tampa, Florida, just before the company is about to release its second-quarter financial results. After this expansion, Tesla Robotaxi services have been operated in six cities, including the previous ones in Austin, Dallas, Houston and Miami, and supervised test operations are being conducted in the San Francisco Bay Area. This is the second time Tesla has expanded service in Florida this month - the company just launched the service in Miami in early July. Unlike Alphabet's Waymo, which relies on lidar sensors, Tesla's Robotaxi system relies entirely on cameras and artificial intelligence software for navigation. This service expansion comes at a critical time when Tesla is about to release its second-quarter earnings report. Tesla has previously announced that global deliveries in the second quarter reached 480,126 vehicles, setting a record for its best second quarter performance. At the same time, energy storage deployment reached 13.5 GWh, a year-on-year increase of more than 40%. Wall Street expects Tesla’s second-quarter revenue to be about $26.4 billion and earnings per share to be about $0.52. However, the actual operational scale of Tesla’s Robotaxi service still attracts market attention. Reports indicate that Austin, Tesla’s first Robotaxi operating city, has only about 17 active vehicles after one year of operation, which is far lower than outside expectations. Tesla CEO Musk previously stated that strict “safety verification” is the main factor limiting the rapid expansion of the fleet. By comparison, Waymo currently operates about 3,000 driverless vehicles across the United States and provides more than 500,000 paid rides per week. Analyst Alexander Perry pointed out that in this financial report, investors will focus on Robotaxi’s fleet expansion pace and new market expansion plans. The market expects Tesla to provide more details on the commercialization process of Robotaxi during the earnings call.