Gary Zhou 
Tesla will achieve full autonomy in 2023 if things go according to plan, CEO Elon Musk said on the Q1 2023 Earnings Call last night.
After being asked about Full Self-Driving take rates and whether Tesla would consider reducing prices on the semi-autonomous driving functionality as vehicle prices have adjusted throughout the quarter.
As noted in the past, Musk’s value of autonomy is nearly limitless. On last evening’s call, he called it “enormous,” which makes it tough to consider for a price reduction:
“It’s a tricky pricing question, because the value of a car that is autonomous is enormous. So in a way, the price right now is an option value on an autonomous vehicle. And that value is — that will ultimately be very significant.”
Even more of an argument for the lack of interest in price reduction is Musk’s projection for where Tesla will be at the end of the year in terms of autonomy. His prediction is something we’ve heard many times before: this year:
“…For those that are using the FSD beta, I think you can see the improvements are really quite dramatic. There’ll be a little bit of two steps forward, one step back between releases for those trying the beta. But the trend is very clearly towards full self-driving, towards full autonomy. And I hesitate to say this, but I think we’ll do it this year. So that’s what it looks like.”
It is no secret that Tesla has been working towards a fully autonomous vehicle, and recent comments from Musk have even stated that the company’s next-gen vehicle will operate “almost entirely in autonomous mode,” which would align with other comments made during the earnings call regarding the Robotaxi.
Tesla has continued to make tremendous strides in its development of the Full Self-Driving Beta, but it is still tough to determine how far away the company is from achieving a fully autonomous vehicle or Robotaxi fleet.
