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Tesla gets first place in inaugural Industrial Digital Transformation Report
ARC Advisory Group, a technology and research firm founded in 1986, recently released its inaugural Industrial Digital Transformation Top 25 special report. The report analyzes companies across several industries and ranks them based on how well they excel at integrating digital technologies in all areas of their business. Tesla took the number one spot in ARC’s inaugural list.
As per ARC’s report, companies that do well in the integration of digital technologies fundamentally change the way they operate and deliver value to their customers. Marianne D’Aquila, ARC’s director of research, noted that companies that lead in digital transformations usually gain a competitive advantage in their respective industries.
“Digital transformation leaders across many different industries share common traits and visions, helping them overcome complex challenges to innovate and stay agile. Industrial innovation continues to accelerate, and leading companies have their transformation initiatives well underway. For those who succeed, the result is a competitive advantage, even during the most difficult economic times.” the director of research noted.
ARC developed a rather rigorous process to identify and rank the companies in its inaugural Industrial Digital Transformation Top 25 report. The ranking covered three main components of a business — financial indicators, transformation indicators, and collective intelligence. Financial indicators were analyzed by studying a company’s publicly-available financial data, transformation indicators were scored based on software and Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) data, and collective intelligence was based on selection and ranking by ARC’s own analysts.
As noted by ARC in its report, the companies that made its Top 25 were from a variety of industries. “They share a common thread of leveraging digital technologies to transform business capabilities and outcomes, giving them a competitive advantage during challenging global circumstances. While some shifted their digital transformation efforts during the pandemic, all had some level of preparation prior and have an eye toward the future. For them, digital transformation is not an option, it is a necessity to survive and thrive,” the report read.
ARC Advisory Group describes its reasons for selecting Tesla as the number one company for its inaugural Digital Transformation Top 25 in the following section:
“Some may argue that Tesla started out as a transformative company rather than one that has recently transformed, given that its intent was to disrupt the automotive industry. The company’s growth has been fueled by several bold digital strategies. Founded in 2003, the company’s message from day one was not that an electric car could be good but that it could be better.
“Tesla’s fundamental philosophy internally and externally is to shift perception. Prior to Tesla, the market perception of electric vehicles was a slow, ugly juiced up car with little range. Tesla shifted this perception to one of being a sleek high performance and accelerated mode of transformation. This same strategy is used inside the organization to gain buy-in for digital initiatives and process. For example, when Tesla sets out to automate its internal processes, they try to build it better from the start rather than start a clunky project and hope to get better on revision 4 or 5. This orientation is fundamental in determining what KPIs the company values, as many of them are far different from metrics managed by manufacturers relying on traditional views of success.”
The advisory group also highlighted Tesla’s approach to vehicles, which sees cars more like computers on wheels than intricate machines that take people from Point A to Point B. This strategy, according to ARC, has allowed the company to deliver more value to its customers, making Tesla a distinct automaker whose products are near-incomparable to their competition.
“By showing value from the start and having internal stakeholders support initiatives, internal employee resistance is minimized. As ARC sees it, this is an example of a company that is comfortable with digital transformation and adapts to business challenges with greater ease quickly. Tesla’s digital connectivity has allowed the company to deliver more value to consumers. Their business model is built on the tenet that the vehicles are more like interactive computers with wheels, leading to the creation of an intelligent data platform and connected ecosystem, enabling Tesla to learn from and serve its customers.
“In Q3 2021, Tesla has publicly stated it plans to grow manufacturing capacity as quickly as possible. Over a multi-year horizon, Tesla expects to achieve 50 percent average annual growth in vehicle deliveries. This rate of growth will depend on Tesla’s equipment capacity, operational efficiency, and the capacity and stability of the supply chain.”
A copy of ARC Advisory Group’s inaugural Industrial Digital Transformation Top 25 report can be requested here.
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Tesla has announced it has hit a major milestone with Full Self-Driving subscriptions, shortly after it said it would exclusively offer the suite without the option to purchase it outright.
Tesla announced on Wednesday during its Q4 Earnings Call for 2025 that it had officially eclipsed the one million subscription mark for its Full Self-Driving suite. This represented a 38 percent increase year-over-year.
This is up from the roughly 800,000 active subscriptions it reported last year. The company has seen significant increases in FSD adoption over the past few years, as in 2021, it reported just 400,000. In 2022, it was up to 500,000 and, one year later, it had eclipsed 600,000.
NEWS: For the first time, Tesla has revealed how many people are subscribed or have purchased FSD (Supervised).
Active FSD Subscriptions:
• 2025: 1.1 million
• 2024: 800K
• 2023: 600K
• 2022: 500K
• 2021: 400K pic.twitter.com/KVtnyANWcs— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) January 28, 2026
In mid-January, CEO Elon Musk announced that the company would transition away from giving the option to purchase the Full Self-Driving suite outright, opting for the subscription program exclusively.
Musk said on X:
“Tesla will stop selling FSD after Feb 14. FSD will only be available as a monthly subscription thereafter.”
The move intends to streamline the Full Self-Driving purchase option, and gives Tesla more control over its revenue, and closes off the ability to buy it outright for a bargain when Musk has said its value could be close to $100,000 when it reaches full autonomy.
It also caters to Musk’s newest compensation package. One tranche requires Tesla to achieve 10 million active FSD subscriptions, and now that it has reached one million, it is already seeing some growth.
The strategy that Tesla will use to achieve this lofty goal is still under wraps. The most ideal solution would be to offer a less expensive version of the suite, which is not likely considering the company is increasing its capabilities, and it is becoming more robust.
Tesla is shifting FSD to a subscription-only model, confirms Elon Musk
Currently, Tesla’s FSD subscription price is $99 per month, but Musk said this price will increase, which seems counterintuitive to its goal of increasing the take rate. With that being said, it will be interesting to see what Tesla does to navigate growth while offering a robust FSD suite.
News
Tesla confirms Robotaxi expansion plans with new cities and aggressive timeline
Tesla plans to launch in Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas. It lists the Bay Area as “Safety Driver,” and Austin as “Ramping Unsupervised.”
Tesla confirmed its intentions to expand the Robotaxi program in the United States with an aggressive timeline that aims to send the ride-hailing service to several large cities very soon.
The Robotaxi program is currently active in Austin, Texas, and the California Bay Area, but Tesla has received some approvals for testing in other areas of the U.S., although it has not launched in those areas quite yet.
However, the time is coming.
During Tesla’s Q4 Earnings Call last night, the company confirmed that it plans to expand the Robotaxi program aggressively, hoping to launch in seven new cities in the first half of the year.
Tesla plans to launch in Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas. It lists the Bay Area as “Safety Driver,” and Austin as “Ramping Unsupervised.”
These details were released in the Earnings Shareholder Deck, which is published shortly before the Earnings Call:
🚨 BREAKING: Tesla plans to launch its Robotaxi service in Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas in the first half of this year pic.twitter.com/aTnruz818v
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) January 28, 2026
Late last year, Tesla revealed it had planned to launch Robotaxi in Las Vegas, Phoenix, Dallas, and Houston, but Tampa and Orlando were just added to the plans, signaling an even more aggressive expansion than originally planned.
Tesla feels extremely confident in its Robotaxi program, and that has been reiterated many times.
Although skeptics still remain hesitant to believe the prowess Tesla has seemingly proven in its development of an autonomous driving suite, the company has been operating a successful program in Austin and the Bay Area for months.
In fact, it announced it achieved nearly 700,000 paid Robotaxi miles since launching Robotaxi last June.
🚨 Tesla has achieved nearly 700,000 paid Robotaxi miles since launching in June of last year pic.twitter.com/E8ldSW36La
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) January 28, 2026
With the expansion, Tesla will be able to penetrate more of the ride-sharing market, disrupting the human-operated platforms like Uber and Lyft, which are usually more expensive and are dependent on availability.
Tesla launched driverless rides in Austin last week, but they’ve been few and far between, as the company is certainly easing into the program with a very cautiously optimistic attitude, aiming to prioritize safety.
Investor's Corner
Tesla (TSLA) Q4 and FY 2025 earnings call: The most important points
Executives, including CEO Elon Musk, discussed how the company is positioning itself for growth across vehicles, energy, AI, and robotics despite near-term pressures from tariffs, pricing, and macro conditions.
Tesla’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) Q4 and FY 2025 earnings call highlighted improving margins, record energy performance, expanding autonomy efforts, and a sharp acceleration in AI and robotics investments.
Executives, including CEO Elon Musk, discussed how the company is positioning itself for growth across vehicles, energy, AI, and robotics despite near-term pressures from tariffs, pricing, and macro conditions.
Key takeaways
Tesla reported sequential improvement in automotive gross margins excluding regulatory credits, rising from 15.4% to 17.9%, supported by favorable regional mix effects despite a 16% decline in deliveries. Total gross margin exceeded 20.1%, the highest level in more than two years, even with lower fixed-cost absorption and tariff impacts.
The energy business delivered standout results, with revenue reaching nearly $12.8 billion, up 26.6% year over year. Energy gross profit hit a new quarterly record, driven by strong global demand and high deployments of MegaPack and Powerwall across all regions, as noted in a report from The Motley Fool.
Tesla also stated that paid Full Self-Driving customers have climbed to nearly 1.1 million worldwide, with about 70% having purchased FSD outright. The company has now fully transitioned FSD to a subscription-based sales model, which should create a short-term margin headwind for automotive results.
Free cash flow totaled $1.4 billion for the quarter. Operating expenses rose by $500 million sequentially as well.
Production shifts, robotics, and AI investment
Musk further confirmed that Model S and Model X production is expected to wind down next quarter, and plans are underway to convert Fremont’s S/X line into an Optimus robot factory with a capacity of one million units.
Tesla’s Robotaxi fleet has surpassed 500 vehicles, operating across the Bay Area and Austin, with Musk noting a rapid monthly expansion pace. He also reiterated that CyberCab production is expected to begin in April, following a slow initial S-curve ramp before scaling beyond other vehicle programs.
Looking ahead, Tesla expects its capital expenditures to exceed $20 billion next year, thanks to the company’s operations across its six factories, the expansion of its fleet expansion, and the ramp of its AI compute. Additional investments in AI chips, compute infrastructure, and future in-house semiconductor manufacturing were discussed but are not included in the company’s current CapEx guidance.
More importantly, Tesla ended the year with a larger backlog than in recent years. This is supported by record deliveries in smaller international markets and stronger demand across APAC and EMEA. Energy backlog remains strong globally as well, though Tesla cautioned that margin pressure could emerge from competition, policy uncertainty, and tariffs.
Tesla hits major milestone with Full Self-Driving subscriptions
Tesla confirms Robotaxi expansion plans with new cities and aggressive timeline
