Tesla performed its in-house crash testing of the Cybertruck, and because it was in compliance with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, the car can be delivered to customers. However, it does not have official safety ratings from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), and the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety (IIHS) has no plans to test the vehicle.
There’s an explanation for all of it, however.
The Cybertruck’s Situation with the NHTSA
The NHTSA does not “approve” new vehicles, but it establishes performance requirements that comply with FMVSS. Manufacturers certify compliance with these standards when they crash test internally. Some vehicles are crash-tested directly by the NHTSA, but the Cybertruck is not one of these vehicles. At least not yet.
According to a 2020 report from Consumer Reports, “97 percent of all new vehicles sold are crash-test rated by one or both of the independent organizations.”
However, as the Cybertruck’s preliminary safety ratings have been added to the NHTSA database, they do not include any specific ratings in terms of crash ratings. The only ratings are safety features, such as Front Collision Warning, Lane Departure Warning, Crash Imminent Braking, and Dynamic Brake Support, which all meet performance criteria.
The Cybertruck is not mentioned on the 2024 list of vehicles to be included in the agency’s five-star safety ratings tests.
This means the Cybertruck will not have official ratings from the NHTSA until the truck is tested by them directly, per the agency, which clarified its plans to Teslarati on Monday.
The Cybertruck’s Situation with the IIHS
The IIHS also has no plans to test the Cybertruck, the organization told us.
“Automakers do perform their own crash tests to ensure compliance with federal regulations and for internal purposes,” Joe Young of the IIHS said. “Regardless of whether the [Cybertruck] is ever tested by IIHS or for NHTSA’s NCAP program, it will still need to meet federal motor vehicle safety standards, which require certain crash test standards.”
The Cybertruck has done this, and the recommendation from the NHTSA and IIHS is more or less another nod of confidence for any vehicle that is tested. Tesla has received five-star ratings for its vehicles from the NHTSA in the past.
Young also said the Cybertruck could be tested by the IIHS in the future. However, that decision will be made after it can assess “the level of general consumer interest in the vehicle.” If it is popular enough, the IIHS may test it.
Tesla ‘highly confident’ Cybertruck is safer than other trucks: Elon Musk
Additionally, Tesla could reach out to the IIHS and nominate the Cybertruck for testing:
“The testing nomination process allows automakers to essentially reimburse us for the cost of the vehicle(s) to get it tested more quickly than we might otherwise do so. Either scenario would require vehicle availability, however,” Young said.
The IIHS also has a verification test program, which allows automakers to submit in-house data and results of crash testing. Due to limited funding and time, the IIHS cannot independently test every consumer vehicle on the market, so it can use OEM data to do so. The program is regularly audited to ensure accuracy.
However, the Cybertruck is not currently able to be a part of the verification test program. Young explained, “As a new model, the Cybertruck wouldn’t be eligible for this program in our driver-side small overlap test, and we don’t accept verification data for our updated moderate overlap frontal crash test program. It’s possible it could be eligible for a verification rating in one or more of our other tests, but that would be at the discretion of our crashworthiness team.”
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Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) reported its earnings for the third quarter of 2026, marking a reasonable performance on the various financial metrics. Tesla still plans to hold a call that will field investor questions at 5:30 p.m. ET, 4:30 p.m. CT.
Here’s where Earnings came in:
- Total Revenues: $28.046 reported vs. $28.34B expected
- Non-GAAP EPS: $0.48 reported vs. $0.45 expected
- Operating Margin: 2.6 % reported vs. 2.5% expected
- Operating Income: $718M reported vs. $721M expected
- Free Cash Flow: $1.531B reported vs. ~-$4.51B expected
Tesla $TSLA Earnings Results:
Revenues: $28.046B
Non-GAAP EPS: $0.48
Operating Margin: 2.6%
Operating Income: $718M
FCF: $1.531B— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 21, 2026
Major Takeaways
Full Self-Driving (Supervised)
“FSD (Supervised)⁴ attach rate continued to grow, reaching over 75% of new vehicle deliveries in North America – our most mature market – a nearly twenty percentage point sequential increase. We believe that FSD is driving demand in markets where it is available, and we continue to work with regulators to get it approved in other markets.”
Tesla Semi
“We began volume production of Tesla Semi, our Class 8 heavy-duty truck. The top variant can go 500 miles at full 82,000 lbs gross combination weight while achieving an efficiency of 1.7 kWh/mile. That efficiency allows the Tesla Semi to use a third of the energy used by a comparable diesel truck to haul the same payload. In a transportation market where energy is one of the largest components of total cost per mile, this will provide a meaningful advantage to Tesla Semi operators.”
SI Compute
“We plan to reach 400 MW of SI training compute by the end of the year, supporting the development of both vehicle and humanoid robot autonomy software. Additionally, we continued construction for the Austin Fab, where we plan to start commissioning equipment in 2027.”
Robotaxi
“We began deployment of Cybercab into our Robotaxi fleet in Austin. We reached nearly two million cumulative unsupervised miles for our Robotaxi service as of the end of the quarter. Operating hours in Austin are now 6am to midnight, and we expect to reduce wait times via increased fleet supply and improvement of Robotaxi orchestration algorithms. Grok is available in Cybercab with access to Grok Bot and Connectors, which allows users to manage their inbox, calendars, files, chats and tasks – all hands free via voice command – making Cybercab a mode of transport, a productivity space and, with our entertainment options, a second living room.”
Interested in ordering a Tesla? Use my referral code for three free months of Full Self-Driving (Supervised) here.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) reports its earnings for Q3 today. Here’s what to expect, as the company will reveal its balance sheet after the market closes on Wednesday.
Tesla already reported deliveries just after Q3 ended, and it demolished Wall Street consensus estimates of roughly 462,000 vehicles. Tesla delivered 486,532 cars in the third quarter, which was a big beat, but was down 2.1 percent from the same quarter last year. Energy storage deployments were 13.7 GWh, up year-over-year.
Tesla showrooms picked clean ahead of Q3 end as demand looks strong
For the quarter, analysts have already compiled their predictions for what Tesla will report this afternoon:
- Total Revenues: $28.34B
- Non-GAAP EPS: $0.43
- Operating Margin: 2.5%
- Operating Income: $721M
- Free Cash Flow: ~-$4.51B
Here are a few things we are looking forward to hearing about on the call:
Automotive Gross Margin and Overall Profitability
This was 16.3 percent in Q2, down from 19.2 percent in Q1, and was impacted by warranty charges and some fading regulatory credits. Consensus implies overall gross margin near 18 percent, but a miss here would potentially reinforce concerns about pricing pressure on its vehicles.
Pay attention to energy storage margins as well, especially since Tesla missed GWh expectations, although it was still a strong quarter.
Robotaxi/Cybercab, Unsupervised FSD, and Optimus Progress
The Say questions from retail investors usually focus on these types of projects, and this quarter is no different. Scaling the Cybercab fleet beyond Austin amid the open NHTSA safety review, timeline for Unsupervised FSD in customer cars, Robotaxi unit economics, and Optimus cost per unit plus when it could start generating revenue, are all things to be looking for.
Any concrete timelines or regulatory path details will likely move the stock more than the near-term numbers. SpaceX merger speculation, which was detailed during SpaceX’s earnings call last night, may also surface, although the key details were shared last night.
Elon Musk just confirmed the Tesla and SpaceX merger step everyone was waiting for
Say Investor Questions
- How does the Cybercab fleet scale past Austin, and what’s the regulatory path outside Texas given NHTSA’s open safety review?
- When can we anticipate FSD unsupervised in customer cars?
- When will the CyberCab be available for customer purchase/ownership?
- What’s the unit economics per paid robotaxi mile, and how does it compare to the thirty-cent target?
- Tesla has acknowledged that HW3 vehicles cannot support unsupervised FSD. When will owners know whether they can upgrade their hardware for free, and when will Tesla provide a clear plan?
The full Earnings Call will be streamed this evening after market close around 5 p.m. this evening.
SpaceX confirmed the date of Starship’s 15th launch window with some massive ambitions for the mission, as it will attempt to catch Ship for the first time.
CEO Elon Musk confirmed during SpaceX’s Earnings Call last night on October 20 that it would launch Starship for its 15th test flight in November, and there are some incredible things the company wants to try, making it perhaps the most groundbreaking launch in the program’s history.
SpaceX delivers blockbuster Q3 results as Super Intelligence segment booms
The most major development of the call was SpaceX’s intention to catch Ship alongside catching the Super Heavy Booster, something that has happened in the past. SpaceX showed an animation of the Ship catch, which will be done on the launch tower’s chopsticks:
SpaceX has released a new Starship tower catch animation for the upcoming Flight 15! https://t.co/kStn01Da8u
— Truthful🛰️ (@Truthful_ast) October 20, 2026
This monumental goal is to catch both the Ship and Booster in a dual-catch scenario, an incredible feat since SpaceX has never been able to reuse a Ship after launch. Musk said it would be “the first time that an orbital launch vehicle has been fully recovered,” and said it would be a “profound technology milestone.”
Musk said the odds of success on this first Ship catch attempt are “more likely than not,” but SpaceX is ultimately prepared for more tries moving forward. The SpaceX frontman said that, starting next year, Starship would have a “steady stream” of flights through the end of the year.
The cadence will accelerate in 2027, with Musk stating the company plans to target weekly flights in the first half of 2027 and twice-weekly by year-end.
The Flight 15 attempt follows that of Flight 14, which took off in late September and was Starship’s first orbital mission. It deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites, accomplished a controlled ocean splashdown of both stages, and shed more light on potential challenges for the program moving forward.
As of now, the Starship program is firing on all cylinders.
Interested in ordering a Tesla? Use my referral code for three free months of Full Self-Driving (Supervised) here.
Tesla Q3 2026 Earnings results: in-line revenues, slight beat on EPS
Tesla reports Q3 Earnings today: here’s what to expect
