Key Points
- Tesla expanded its robotaxi service to Fort Worth as its driverless operations continued to grow beyond Austin.
- Tesla reported 1.74 million paying FSD customers in Q3 2026, with monthly subscriptions accounting for about half.
- Tesla's high earnings multiple leaves little room for delays in turning its autonomy ambitions into substantial profits.
- Special Report: Elon Musk… A Total Fraud?
Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) has spent years promising investors a self-driving future. Increasingly, it’s delivering on this promise. With more than 1.7 million Tesla customers paying for Full Self-Driving (FSD) software, the company’s robotaxi service is expanding too. Tesla launched its Austin robotaxi service in June 2025 with safety monitors and began offering limited driverless passenger rides in January 2026. In early November, the service expanded to Fort Worth.
Tesla's stock rally has reflected growing expectations for its autonomy business. Shares rose roughly 28% from the end of July through Nov. 3, after reaching an intraday high above $414 on Nov. 2. The trouble is the math. At more than 400 times trailing earnings, Tesla is priced for substantial future profits from autonomy, which have yet to materialize at scale.
So the big question for anyone tempted to buy around here is whether this latest rollout proves the company is growing into that valuation, or whether Tesla shares are still asking for too much, too soon.
Tesla’s Robotaxi Rollout Moves Beyond Austin
To Tesla’s credit, the autonomy story is no longer just a slide in a keynote. While Austin might have been the test case, Tesla’s expansion of its driverless robotaxi service into Fort Worth is an important milestone.
It comes after a lot of positive signs. Management has said Tesla’s Austin Cybercab fleet grew roughly tenfold following its September launch, while the broader robotaxi service logged nearly 2 million cumulative unsupervised miles by the end of Q3. With Dallas also on the map and customer-owned cars potentially joining the fleet around Q2 2027, the network is widening fast.
It’s real, but it’s early. These fleets are still small compared to peers, and robotaxi rides have yet to generate meaningful profit for Tesla. The expansion to Fort Worth further proves the technology is moving onto the road, but it doesn’t yet prove it’s a profitable business.
FSD Adoption Is Becoming Real Revenue
Underpinning the robotaxi push is FSD’s software business, which is already scaling. More than 1.7 million customers worldwide now pay for FSD in their cars, a tally Tesla’s third-quarter earnings results showed climbing sharply over the past year, with more than 75% of North American vehicle deliveries including an FSD subscription sign-up.
Roughly half of those customers are on monthly subscriptions, and recurring revenue is estimated to approach the $1 billion mark. That makes FSD a real distribution channel, even if the questions that matter most, retention and churn, still need to be answered. For the bulls, it’s the clearest evidence yet that Tesla can sell autonomy as software at scale, and it helps justify the triple-digit valuation.
European Demand Shows Signs of Revival
The other part of the equation is good old-fashioned demand. October saw a sharp rebound in Tesla’s registrations across several European markets, with year-over-year increases of 248% in Sweden and 131% in Norway. Tesla was Norway's best-selling car brand for the month, according to registration data. After months of soft European numbers, that’s a welcome signal heading into the fourth quarter.
On that score, however, the picture isn’t uniformly bright. Although Tesla registrations also rose 34% in Denmark, the company trailed several Chinese competitors there, while Chinese rivals are gaining ground fast across the region. One strong month in a couple of countries is encouraging, but it isn’t yet proof of a broad recovery, and Tesla still has to turn the interest into a durable profit.
Tesla's Valuation Leaves Little Room for Error
Which brings us back to the stock’s valuation. Tesla trades at more than 400 times earnings, a multiple that only makes sense if autonomy, not to mention its energy and robotics ambitions, becomes an enormous profit center.
It also assumes its traditional car business can bankroll those emerging businesses until they stand on their own. The danger is that Tesla’s car sales might struggle with this, as the company's automotive margins remain somewhat thin and earnings continue to fall.
In other words, the bulls need a lot to go right. To be sure, Tesla still carries a MarketBeat consensus rating of Moderate Buy, a sign Wall Street likes the direction of travel. But the more nuanced read might be that while the latest robotaxi update might help to justify the hype, it doesn’t yet justify the price.
If Tesla can keep scaling its fleet and turn FSD into a mega-profit engine, then yes, the current valuation might make sense, and the stock’s price could end up looking cheap in a couple of years. But if any near-term signs emerge that this will take longer than planned, the market may be quick to reprice the stock accordingly.
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