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Tesla wants new video games to be made at Giga Texas
Tesla is looking to ramp up its in-car video game presence for owners based on job descriptions on the company’s website.
The electric automaker is planning to hire a series of Video Game and Infotainment engineers. They will be employed at the new Giga Texas production facility, just 15 minutes outside of Austin.
Tesla posted four different jobs that entailed software engineering, software infotainment development, and video game development on its career website on August 16th. The postings hinted toward a new series of in-car video games and entertainment platforms that would keep drivers occupied while Supercharging their electric vehicles.
The job postings follow an announcement from company CEO Elon Musk, who indicated that along with new Driving Visualization features, Tesla would work on bringing out a new “fun punch buggy sort of game.”
Since then, renderings of the company’s vehicles have been released, but the game idea that Musk touched on has remained a mystery. The new job listings hint that the company could be working toward developing a unique array of games that could keep drivers and passengers entertained during downtime.
A goal of Tesla’s has been to improve gamification within its cars for years. Musk, an avid video game fan himself, has made it a point to add more games and other sources of entertainment into the vehicles to help owners combat routine boredom.
However, drivers will also need points of entertainment when Tesla achieves a completely functional self-driving functionality. Musk said during the Q2 2020 Earnings Call that drivers would likely want to have some options of entertainment if the car is operating and navigating on its own.
“Now, when things do become full self-driving, so what are people going to do in the car,” Musk asked. “Well, I guess they’re probably going to do productivity and entertainment of some kind, watch movies, play games, and do work. That’s in the future. We’re already putting some games and stuff on the car just for fun.”
Broad rollouts of new sources of entertainment for drivers could also hint toward the company’s surge toward self-driving functions. With Tesla working toward the “feature complete” version of its Full Self-Driving suite, the company is also working toward an autonomous future with Robotaxi that could help drivers make money with their cars.
Tesla does currently offer some gaming options on its vehicles. Most recently, Fallout Shelter became available with software update 2020.20, and a Buggy Racing game is available and quite popular among first-time Tesla passengers.
Tesla has been preparing for Giga Texas’ initial operation since announcing its construction during the Q2 2020 Earnings Call. As more jobs are offered at Giga, Texas, it becomes more apparent that Tesla is preparing for a large-scale operation at the new facility. The Gigafactory will be responsible for much more than building the company’s fleet of all-electric cars.
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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 is bringing closure to its flagship Model S and Model X vehicles, which CEO Elon Musk said several years ago were only produced for “sentimental reasons.”
The Model S and Model X have been light contributors to Tesla’s delivery growth over the past few years, commonly contributing only a few percentage points toward the over 1.7 million cars the company has handed over to customers annually since 2022.
However, the Model S and Model X have remained in production because of their high-end performance and flagship status; they are truly two vehicles that are premium offerings and do not hold major weight toward Tesla’s future goals.
On Wednesday, during the Q4 2025 Earnings Call, Musk confirmed that Tesla would bring closure to the two models, ending their production and making way for the manufacturing efforts of the Optimus robot:
“It is time to bring the Model S and Model X programs to an end with an honorable discharge. It is time to bring the S/X programs to an end. It’s part of our overall shift to an autonomous future.”
Musk said the production lines that Tesla has for the Model S and Model X at the Fremont Factory in Northern California will be transitioned to Optimus production lines that will produce one million units per year.
Tesla Fremont Factory celebrates 15 years of electric vehicle production
Tesla will continue to service Model S and Model X vehicles, but it will officially stop deliveries of the cars in Q2, as inventory will be liquidated. When they’re gone, they’re gone.
BREAKING: Tesla will wind down Model S and Model X production next quarter, Elon Musk confirms.
“It is time to bring the Model S and Model X programs to an end with an honorable discharge.” pic.twitter.com/Czn7aQjJE1
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) January 28, 2026
Tesla has been making moves to sunset the two vehicles for the better part of one year. Last July, it stopped taking any custom orders for vehicles in Europe, essentially pushing the idea that the program was coming to a close soon.
Musk said back in 2019:
“I mean, they’re very expensive, made in low volume. To be totally frank, we’re continuing to make them more for sentimental reasons than anything else. They’re really of minor importance to the future.”
That point is more relevant than ever as Tesla is ending the production of the cars to make way for Optimus, which will likely be Tesla’s biggest product in the coming years.
Musk added during the Earnings Call on Wednesday that he believes Optimus will be a major needle-mover of the United States’ GDP, as it will increase productivity and enable universal high income for humans.
Tesla confirms Robotaxi expansion plans with new cities and aggressive timeline
Tesla (TSLA) Q4 and FY 2025 earnings call: The most important points
