

Investor's Corner
Why Tesla Autopilot will ultimately prove the self-driving industry leader
Tesla took an early lead in the race to develop vehicle autonomy, and its Autopilot system remains the state of the art. However, the technology is advancing more slowly than the company predicted – Elon Musk promised a coast-to-coast driverless demo run for 2018, and we’re still waiting. Meanwhile, competitors are hard at work on their own autonomy tech – GM’s Super Cruise, is now available on the CT6 luxury sedan.
Is Tesla in danger of falling behind in the self-driving race? Trent Eady, writing in Medium, takes a detailed look at the company’s Autopilot technology, and argues that the California automaker will continue to set the pace.
Every Tesla vehicle produced since October 2016 is equipped with a hardware suite designed for Full Self-Driving, including cameras, radar, ultrasonic sensors and an upgradable onboard computer. Around 150,000 of these “Hardware 2” Teslas are currently on the road, and could theoretically be upgraded to self-driving vehicles via an over-the-air software update.
Above: In its current state, Tesla’s Autopilot requires a hands-on approach (Youtube: Tesla)
Tesla disagrees with most of the other players in the self-driving game on the subject of Lidar, a technology that calculates distances using pulses of infrared laser light. Waymo, Uber and others seem to regard lidar as a necessary component of any self-driving system. However, Tesla’s Hardware 2 sensor suite doesn’t include it, instead relying on radar and optical cameras.
Lidar’s strength is its high spatial precision – it can measure distances much more precisely than current camera technology can (Eady believes that better software could enable cameras to close the gap). Lidar’s weakness is that it functions poorly in bad weather. Heavy rain, snow or fog causes lidar’s laser pulses to refract and scatter. Radar works much better in challenging weather conditions.
According to Eady, the reason that Tesla eschews lidar may be the cost: “Autonomy-grade lidar is prohibitively expensive, so it’s not possible for Tesla to include it in its production cars. As far as I’m aware, no affordable autonomy-grade lidar product has yet been announced. It looks like that is still years away.”
If Elon Musk and his autonomy team are convinced that lidar isn’t necessary, why does everyone else seem so sure that it is? “Lidar has accrued an aura of magic in the popular imagination,” opines Mr. Eady. “It is easier to swallow the new and hard-to-believe idea of self-driving cars if you tell the story that they are largely enabled by a cool, futuristic laser technology…It is harder to swallow the idea that if you plug some regular ol’ cameras into a bunch of deep neural networks, somehow that makes a car capable of driving itself through complicated city streets.”
Those deep neural networks are the real reason that Eady believes Tesla will stay ahead of its competitors in the autonomy field. The flood of data that Tesla is gathering through the sensors of the 150,000 or so existing Hardware 2 vehicles “offers a scale of real-world testing and training that is new in the history of computer science.”
Competitor Waymo has a computer simulation that contains 25,000 virtual cars, and generates data from 8 million miles of simulated driving per day. Tesla’s real-world data is of course vastly more valuable than any simulation data could ever be, and the company uses it to feed deep neural networks, allowing it to continuously improve Autopilot’s capabilities.
A deep neural network is a type of computing system that’s loosely based on the way the human brain is organized (sounds like the kind of AI that Elon Musk is worried about, but we’ll have to trust that Tesla has this under control). Deep neural networks are good at modeling complex non-linear relationships. The more data that’s available to train the network, the better its performance will be.
“Deep neural networks started to gain popularity in 2012, after a deep neural network won the ImageNet Challenge, a computer vision contest focused on image classification,” Eady explains. “For the first time in 2015, a deep neural network slightly outperformed the human benchmark for the ImageNet Challenge…The fact that computers can outperform humans on even some visual tasks is exciting for anyone who wants computers to do things better than humans can. Things like driving.”
By the way, who was the human benchmark who was bested by a machine in the ImageNet Challenge? Andrej Karpathy, who is now Director of AI at Tesla.
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Note: Article originally published on evannex.com by Charles Morris; Source: Medium
Investor's Corner
Tesla Board member and Airbnb co-founder loads up on TSLA ahead of robotaxi launch
Tesla CEO Elon Musk gave a nod of appreciation for the Tesla Board member’s purchase.

Tesla Board member and Airbnb Co-Founder Joe Gebbia has loaded up on TSLA stock (NASDAQ:TSLA). The Board member’s purchase comes just over a month before Tesla is expected to launch an initial robotaxi service in Austin, Texas.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk gave a nod of appreciation for the Tesla Board member in a post on social media.
The TSLA Purchase
As could be seen in a Form 4 submitted to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday, Gebbia purchased about $1.02 million worth of TSLA stock. This was comprised of 4,000 TSLA shares at an average price of $256.308 per share.
Interestingly enough, Gebbia’s purchase represents the first time an insider has purchased TSLA stock in about five years. CEO Elon Musk, in response to a post on social media platform X about the Tesla Board member’s TSLA purchase, gave a nod of appreciation for Gebbia. “Joe rocks,” Musk wrote in his post on X.
Gebbia has served on Tesla’s Board as an independent director since 2022, and he is also a known friend of Elon Musk. He even joined the Trump Administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to help the government optimize its processes.

Just a Few Weeks Before Robotaxi
The timing of Gebbia’s TSLA stock purchase is quite interesting as the company is expected to launch a dedicated roboatxi service this June in Austin. A recent report from Insider, citing sources reportedly familiar with the matter, claimed that Tesla currently has 300 test operators driving robotaxis around Austin city streets. The publication’s sources also noted that Tesla has an internal deadline of June 1 for the robotaxi service’s rollout, but even a launch near the end of the month would be impressive.
During the Q1 2025 earnings call, Elon Musk explained that the robotaxi service that would be launched in June will feature autonomous rides in Model Y units. He also noted that the robotaxi service would see an expansion to other cities by the end of 2025. “The Teslas that will be fully autonomous in June in Austin are probably Model Ys. So, that is currently on track to be able to do paid rides fully autonomously in Austin in June and then to be in many other cities in the US by the end of this year,” Musk stated.
Investor's Corner
Tesla hints at ‘Model 2’ & next-gen EV designs
Tesla’s Q1 2025 update confirms new models this year, with production tied to existing factory lines. Could it be time for the Model 2 debut?

During its Q1 2025 earnings call, Tesla executives hinted at the much-rumored “Model 2” and other next-gen EV designs.
Tesla slightly addressed whether or not it will be pushing forward with the debut of new models later this year in its latest earnings call. The company’s product development executive, Lars Moravy, shared some details about Tesla’s design process and the upcoming affordable models.
“We’re still planning to release models this year. As with all launches, we’re working through, like, the last minute issues that pop up. We’re knocking them down one by one. At this point, I would say that the ramp might be a little slower than we had hoped initially…But there’s nothing that’s blocking us from starting production within the next, within the timeline laid out in the opening remarks.
“And I will say it’s important to emphasize that, as we’ve said all along, the full utilization of our factories is the primary goal for these new products. And so the flexibility of what we can do within the form factor and, you know, the design of it is really limited to what we can do on our existing lines rather than building new ones. But we’ve been targeting the low cost of ownership. Monthly payment is the biggest differentiator for our vehicles, and that’s why we’re focused on bringing these new models with the, you know, the lowest price, to the market, within the constraints I just highlighted.”
The Model 3 is a hell of a deal, ngl. With the federal tax credit, it'd be silly to get a comparably priced combustion-powered car.
Now for the big question. Is the Model 3 currently the best-looking Tesla? https://t.co/5E37J9OKhU— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) April 24, 2025
In January, Tesla’s Chief Financial Officer Vaibhav Taneja teased several new product introductions for this year. There is at least one product that most Tesla supporters and investors are hoping to see: the company’s affordable vehicles, which have been dubbed by the EV community as the “Model 2” or “Model Q.”
Before Tesla’s Robotaxi event last year, many speculated that the company would also unveil its affordable next-gen vehicle. Gene Munster from Deepwater had expected Tesla to release a stripped-down version of the Model 3 as its affordable vehicle during the Robotaxi event. In the end, Tesla unveiled its Robotaxi vehicle and its Robovan design.
It’s been a while since the Robotaxi event, and Tesla has kept mum about its affordable vehicle. Considering its Q1 2025 performance, TSLA investors look forward to catalysts that could boost the stock.
The “Model 2” has been labeled a potential catalyst for Tesla. As such, TSLA investors and supporters have been itching for news about the new affordable vehicle. The main questions surrounding the “Model 2” revolve around its design and price. Based on Moravy’s statement, the “Model 2’s” design will heavily depend on Tesla’s current assembly lines and supply chain structures.
Elon Musk
Tesla regains Piper Sandler’s confidence with Robotaxi plans & Q1 Results
Piper Sandler says Tesla delivered the best-case scenario for bulls. $TSLA has catalysts ahead to silence the bears.

Tesla gained Piper Sandler analyst Alexander Potter’s confidence following its Q1 2025 earnings call. Piper Sandler reaffirmed its Overweight rating and $400 TSLA price target, signaling optimism for the company’s robotaxi and affordable vehicle launches expected this year. The firm’s stance reflects Tesla’s resilience amid market challenges.
Despite expectations of weak Q1 financials, Tesla’s stock edged up in after-hours trading, defying skepticism. Piper Sandler’s Alexander Potter noted that the results met the hopes of Tesla supporters, particularly as the company held firm on its timelines. Potter emphasized that anticipation for robotaxi details and new vehicle launches should keep critics at bay, supporting the $400 target.
“In our preview last week, we predicted that (at best) Q1 would be a non-event. With the stock trading up slightly in the after-hours session, it appears our best-case scenario has materialized. Considering generally weak Q1 financials, we think this is the best result that TSLA bulls could’ve reasonably hoped for.
“In our view, the most important Q1 takeaway is this: Tesla didn’t hedge expectations re: launching Robotaxis or lower-priced vehicles in 1H25. With <2 months until the end of June, investors can look forward to some interesting catalysts in the weeks ahead. In our view, this alone should be enough to keep the bears at bay, at least until we have a better idea re: the details of Tesla’s new products, as well as the scale/scope of the Robotaxi launch,” wrote Potter.
Wedbush Securities’ Dan Ives, a longtime TSLA bull, echoed Potter’s optimism for Tesla. Ives raised his price target for Tesla stock from $315 to $350 with a BUY rating. His Tesla upgrade came after Elon Musk’s announcement during the Q1 earnings call that he would reduce his involvement with DOGE, signaling a sharper focus on Tesla.
Tesla’s steady Q1 performance and unwavering commitment to its 2025 roadmap, including the Robotaxi launch and lower-priced models, bolster investor confidence. Piper Sandler’s analysis underscores Tesla’s ability to navigate a competitive electric vehicle market while advancing its technological edge. The upcoming Robotaxi launch and affordable vehicle introductions are pivotal, with analysts expecting these initiatives to drive stock value through 2025.
As Tesla prepares for these milestones, its stock movement reflects market trust in Musk’s vision. With Piper Sandler and Wedbush reaffirming bullish outlooks, Tesla’s strategic moves will remain under close scrutiny, positioning the company to capitalize on its innovation pipeline in a dynamic industry landscape.
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