Elon Musk
Tesla set for ‘golden age of autonomous’ as Robotaxi nears, ‘dark chapter’ ends: Wedbush
Tesla is set to win big from the launch of the Robotaxi platform, Wedbush’s Dan Ives said.

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) is set to kick off its own “golden age of autonomous growth” as its Robotaxi platform nears launch and a “dark chapter” for the company has evidently come to a close, according to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives.
Ives has jostled his price target on Tesla shares a few times already this year, usually switching things up as the market sways and the company’s near-term outlook changes. His price target on Tesla has gone from $550 to $315 to $350 back to $500 this year, with the newest adjustment coming from a note released early on Friday.
🚨 Wedbush’s Dan Ives is raising his price target on Tesla $TSLA from $350 to $500 as the “golden age of autonomous” nears:
“We believe the golden age of autonomous is now on the doorstep for Tesla with the Austin launch next month kicking off this key next chapter of growth for…
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) May 23, 2025
As CEO Elon Musk has essentially started to dwindle down his commitment to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) altogether, Ives believes that Tesla’s “dark chapter” has come to a close:
“First lets address the elephant in the room…2025 started off as a dark chapter for Musk and Tesla as Elon’s role in the Trump Administration and DOGE created a life of its own which created brand damage and a black cloud over the story….but importantly those days are in the rear-view mirror as we are now seeing a recommitted Musk leading Tesla as CEO into this autonomous and robotics future ahead with his days in the White House now essentially over.”
Ives believes Tesla’s launch of Robotaxi should be the company’s way to unlock at least $1 trillion in value alone, especially as the Trump White House will fast-track the key initiatives the automaker needs to get things moving in the right direction:
“The $1 trillion of AI valuation will start to get unlocked in the Tesla story and we believe the march to a $2 trillion valuation for TSLA over the next 12 to 18 months has now begun in our view with FSD and autonomous penetration of Tesla’s installed base and the acceleration of Cybercab in the US representing the golden goose.”
There are some concerns moving forward, but none of which relate to the AI/autonomous play that Ives primarily focuses on within the Friday note. Instead, they are related to demand in both Europe and Asia, as Ives said, “there is still wood to chop to turn around Model Y growth” in both of those markets.
Nevertheless, the big focus for Ives is evidently the launch of Robotaxi and the potential of the entire autonomous division that Tesla plans to offer as a ride-sharing service in the coming months. Ives also believes a 50 percent or more penetration of Full Self-Driving could totally transform the financial model and margins of Tesla moving ahead.
Aware of the setbacks Tesla could encounter, Ives still believes that Tesla will establish itself as “the true autonomous winner over” and that investors will recognize the AI vision the company has been so bullish on.
Ives pushed his price target to $500. Tesla shares are down just under 1% at the time of publication. They are trading at $337.88 at 11:45 on the East Coast.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk says this essential Tesla Robotaxi feature will be here soon
Tesla will work to solve automatic parking at available Supercharger stalls with future updates.

Elon Musk reiterated that one feature, which is ultimately an essential part of the operation of the Tesla Robotaxi platform, will be here soon.
Tesla released a new video of its longest Full Self-Driving demo yesterday, showing off a zero-intervention drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles. The drive is roughly seven hours and 360 miles long, and not a single need for the driver to touch the wheel was recorded.
Tesla flexes its most impressive and longest Full Self-Driving demo yet
There was one question that was brought up by an owner that brings up an interesting point. Tesla still needs to solve the vehicle’s ability to pull into Superchargers automatically, something that does not currently have a high success rate, at least for the owner who got a response from CEO Elon Musk.
Musk assured him that a Tesla’s ability to pull into open parking spaces at Superchargers would be more reliable with future software updates. Owners can see how many and which exact stalls are available before traveling to a Supercharger, so Teslas should be able to identify these stalls and pull in automatically:
Yeah, it will work essentially perfectly with future software updates
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 12, 2025
This is a small part of what will be imperative for the charging experience when Robotaxi launches in the coming years. Tesla plans to enable customer-owned cars to potentially enter the Robotaxi fleet and become an autonomous ride-sharing vehicle by next year.
However, it still needs to figure out autonomous charging. There are two parts to that process: pulling into the spot and charging without human need to connect the Supercharger to the vehicle.
Tesla used to consider a robotic snake-arm charger for this, but it has talked about induction charging more recently. Wireless charging seems to be the route that Tesla plans to go, but it might take some time to resolve the energy loss issue and make it an efficient charging method.
Tesla flexes Robotaxi wireless charging — autonomy from top to bottom
Tesla has said its wireless charging efficiency is “well above 90 percent.”
Nevertheless, Tesla is still working toward figuring out all of the edge cases of Robotaxi operation. Figuring out charging without the need of a human is just one part of the puzzle it still has yet to solve, but with its improvements over the past few years, there’s no doubt Tesla will find the missing piece.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s new $29B Tesla stock award gets strange synopsis from governance firm
Did CGI not realize that Tesla Shareholders supported Musk being paid not once, but twice?

Elon Musk was recently awarded around $29 billion in Tesla stock as the company’s Board of Directors is attempting to get its CEO paid after his original pay package was denied twice by the Delaware Chancery Court.
But a new and strange synopsis from the Corporate Governance Institute (CGI) says the award is potentially a strength move to “endorse the will of a powerful CEO.” The problem is, in the same sentence, the firm said the new award brings up a “question of whether the board exists to steward a company in the interests of all stakeholders.”
The problem with their new analysis of Musk’s pay package is that shareholders voted twice on Musk’s original pay package of $56 billion. They voted to give Musk that sum on two separate occasions.
Musk’s original $56 billion pay package was approved by shareholders twice; once in 2018 and once again last year. Last year’s vote was in response to Delaware Chancery Court Kathaleen McCormick’s decision to revoke the “unfathomable sum” from Musk.
Shareholders still showed support for Musk getting paid. Tesla said in its new award to the CEO that this is a way to give him compensation for the first time in seven years.
CGI said in its note (via TipRanks):
“When a board builds its strategy around a single individual, it creates a concentration risk, not just operationally, but culturally and ethically. If that individual becomes a source of volatility, the company becomes fragile by design.”
What’s strange with this type of narrative is the fact that Tesla’s valuation has skyrocketed with Musk at the helm. Go back to 2020, and the stock is up over 200 percent. Since Musk’s $56 billion pay package was introduced in 2018, shares are up well over 1,000 percent.
Tesla engineer explains why Elon Musk deserves new pay package
Musk’s 2018 pay package was also not awarded to him without performance-based incentives. He was required to reach certain growth goals, all of which were accomplished through the launch of new vehicles and the advancements of its driver-assistance suites, like Autopilot and Full Self-Driving.
It is tough to agree with CGI’s perception of Musk’s new pay plan, especially as it is much less than what shareholders voted on twice. Musk deserves to be paid for his contributions to Tesla.
Elon Musk
Tesla’s Elon Musk gives nod to Ford while acknowledging his influence on EVs
“Ford basically invented mass manufacturing of large, complex products. Everyone else copied.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk gave a tremendous nod to Ford while also acknowledging his own influence on EVs and the automotive industry in general.
Yesterday, Ford announced its new manufacturing process for EVs, which was essentially a rebirth of its own production lines and plans for more affordable models to offer consumers.
It was important to recognize that Ford truly launched automotive manufacturing with its production of the Model T 122 years ago.
That’s exactly what Musk did in a response to Ford CEO Jim Farley:
Ford basically invented mass manufacturing of large, complex products. Everyone else copied.
Most people don’t know this.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 11, 2025
In the over 100 years since Ford started producing vehicles, the company has had one significant fact go under the radar: it truly created a great process for building large, complex vehicles. It is something that many companies eventually adopted as the car industry took off.
Tesla is in a similar situation. It has used things like the Giga Press from the Italian company IDRA to create a better, more efficient, streamlined process for building cars.
It was able to use casting to eliminate a vast majority of parts from the Model Y, which not only helped increase manufacturing efficiency but also improved safety and structural rigidity. It truly revolutionized manufacturing for the company, and Ford said that it would adopt a similar mindset with its new EVs.
Yesterday, Doug Field, the Chief EV, Digital and Design Officer for Ford, and a former Sr. VP of Engineering for Tesla, said the company was taking the mentality that “the best part is no part.”
Musk acknowledged how far it has come and how it is influencing other car companies to do the same in terms of its production strategy:
🫡
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 12, 2025
Ford is using an “Assembly Tree,” which is essentially very similar to Tesla’s “unboxed production process.” In addition to the use of Gigacasting, which Ford is calling “Unicasting,” as well as the use of structural batteries, it is almost as if Tesla is having its own “Model T moment.”
Ford has been quick to adopt an EV mentality as it plans to transition its business over the next decades. It is working to prepare for the future of the atuomotive industry, and although it has adjusted its strategy, it can’t be denied that Ford is one of the legacy automakers taking this new chapter in cars seriously.
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