Tesla is trying to deceive investors into thinking it has San Francisco Robotaxis
Tesla claimed in today’s Tesla’s Q3 shareholder letter that it started a ride-hailing service in the San Francisco Bay Area “with Robotaxi technology,” but this is impossible given that the company has no license to operate an autonomous taxi in California.
After years of promises, Tesla finally started offering its “Robotaxi” service in Austin, Texas this June. The Robotaxi service is not really a robotaxi, by what we would expect the colloquial definition to be, as each car currently has a “safety monitor” in it at all times, with access to a kill switch should things go south.
It’s been a bit of a bumpy ride so far, but this is one step towards the autonomy promises Tesla has been making for around a decade now.
Tesla also recently did its first autonomous local car delivery, though we’ve only seen one example of that, making it seem to be more of a publicity stunt than an actual sustainable piece of the business.
Along with the introduction of Robotaxis in Austin, Musk made big claims about what’s to come. In July, just a month after the Austin rollout, Musk said that Tesla would cover half of the US population by the end of the year. We are now three months later and two months from the end of this year, and Tesla has made zero progress on that goal – it covers approximately the same area as it previously did, in only one relatively small city.
Or, well, is it two cities? If you ask Tesla, it has also rolled out a Robotaxi-like product in San Francisco, the metro area where the company was founded, and where other autonomous ride-hailing companies have been operating for years now.
In Tesla’s Q3 shareholder letter, released today, the company included a line stating that it “launched ride-hailing service in the Bay Area using Robotaxi technology” in Q3. Later, on the conference call, CFO Vaibhav Taneja said “in the Bay Area, where we still have someone in the driver’s seat due to regulations, we crossed more than a million miles” during a portion of the call talking about Tesla’s Robotaxi program.
However, note that while both of these statements are very clearly Robotaxi-adjacent, they ever-so-slightly skirt around the direct statement that Tesla has rolled out Robotaxis in San Francisco… because, well, it hasn’t.
Despite the company’s statements today, its ride-hailing service is just that – ride-hailing, similar to Uber or Lyft, with nothing special about it other than the fact that the cars involved are Teslas and that those cars have access to Tesla’s level 2 driver-assist system.
There is functionally no difference between hailing a ride on this service versus hailing a ride from a Tesla driver who drives for Uber or Lyft, except that you use a different app to do so. Well, and that the app is limited only to an exclusive group of Tesla Early Access customers, rather than open to the general public like other ride-hailing apps are.
One of the reasons for this, and the reason we know that Tesla isn’t operating real robotaxis in California, is because it can’t. Tesla did obtain a ride-hailing permit earlier this year, but has not obtained a permit to operate an actual driverless taxi service. Those permits do exist in California, and have been obtained by other companies – but they come along with reporting requirements, which Tesla has heretofore been hesitant to comply with.
But that hasn’t stopped Tesla from claiming, as the very first line item in the “highlights” of its “operations” for the quarter, that it made some sort of breakthrough with Robotaxi by launching it in the Bay Area.
This seems like a relatively minor introduction, especially given that it has been alluded to in previous quarterly conference calls. But, despite the lack of forward movement on Tesla’s autonomy project (and, in fact, some regression), Tesla wanted to suggest to investors that something big had happened this quarter. But it hasn’t.
Tesla went on to talk about the future of Robotaxi on the call, stating that it would come to 8-10 metro areas by the end of the year. This is a far shout from the at least 47 metro areas that were promised just three months ago, and yet, still seems like it may not be achieved with only two months left in the year.
Musk did state on the call that the public can see where Tesla has applied for permits, naming Arizona, Nevada and Florida specifically. Notably, California was not on that list. He also stated that Tesla would likely drop the “safety monitor” from its Austin Robotaxis by the end of this year, and that future metro areas would start off with safety monitors and then drop them after a few months.
We’ll have to wait and see whether any of those things happen. But the fact that Tesla is using deceptive language in front of its investors, especially as its also begging them to give Musk $1 trillion dollars (so he can control a robot army), doesn’t make us feel like there’s a lot of honesty going around here. If the company can deceive shareholders in one way as it has today (and as it has done before), it’s likely to lie to shareholders in other ways too.
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Electricity demand is surging in Texas, and solar, wind, and battery storage are meeting it.
According to new data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), electricity demand across the Texas grid managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) hit record highs in the first nine months of 2025. ERCOT, which supplies power to about 90% of the state, saw demand jump 5% year-over-year to 372 terawatt hours (TWh) – a 23% increase since 2021. No other major US grid has grown faster over the past year.
Solar and wind keep ERCOT’s grid steady
The biggest growth story in Texas power generation is solar. Utility-scale solar plants produced 45 TWh from January through September, up 50% from 2024 and nearly four times what they generated in 2021 (11 TWh). Wind power also continued to climb, producing 87 TWh through September – a 4% increase from last year and 36% more than in 2021.
Together, wind and solar supplied 36% of ERCOT’s total electricity over those nine months. Solar, in particular, has transformed Texas’s daytime energy mix. From June to September, ERCOT solar farms generated an average of 24 gigawatts (GW) between noon and 1 pm – double the midday output from 2023. That growth has pushed down natural gas use at midday from 50% of the mix in 2023 to 37% this year.
Battery storage is filling in the gaps
Batteries charge during the day when wind and solar generation are the highest, and they produce electricity when generation from wind and solar slows down. ERCOT began reporting battery output separately in October 2024 in its hourly grid data, and it’s clear that batteries are now helping to smooth out evening peaks. This past summer, batteries supplied an average of 4 GW of power around 8 pm, right as solar production dropped off.
Natural gas is flatlining
Natural gas is still Texas’s dominant power source, but it isn’t growing like it used to. Between January and September, gas-fired plants generated 158 TWh of electricity, compared to 161 TWh in 2023. Gas comprised 43% of ERCOT’s generation mix during the first nine months of 2025, down from 47% in the first nine months of 2023 and 2024.
More demand growth ahead
The EIA expects Texas electricity demand to keep rising faster than any other grid in the US. In its latest Short-Term Energy Outlook, the EIA projects ERCOT’s demand will climb another 14% in the first nine months of 2026, reaching 425 TWh. That means Texas will need even more solar, wind, and battery storage to keep up with its breakneck growth.
Read more: This $900 million solar farm in Texas is going 100% to data centers
The 30% federal solar tax credit is ending this year. If you’ve ever considered going solar, now’s the time to act. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.
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GM is recalling nearly 23,000 Chevy Equinox EV and Cadillac Optiq models due to a defect where the tire tread could fall off.
GM is recalling more Chevy Equinox EV models
In a letter sent to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), GM said it has decided to issue a safety recall for certain Chevy Equinox EV and Cadillac Optiq models from model years 2025 to 2026.
This time, it isn’t necessarily GM’s fault. The vehicles may be equipped with 21″ all-season tires that Continental Tire is recalling.
According to Continental, the tires were produced during the week of October 6, 2024, and may have a defect where the tire tread could partially or fully detach. The records show the defect is due to a nonconforming tread base rubber compound.
Owners of affected vehicles may notice unusual tread wear or bulging, vibration while driving, or tire noises. GM is unaware of any incidents related to the defect, but is issuing the recall out of an abundance of caution.
On September 18, 2025, GM inspected the assembly plant and confirmed there were no suspect tires in stock. The 21″ tires come standard on RS trims and are optional on LT1 and LT2 grades.
Although GM is recalling 22,914 Chevy Equinox EVs and Cadillac Optiqs, it estimates that only about 1% of them have the defect.
The recall includes:
- 2026 Cadillac Optiq: 214
- 2026 Chevy Equinox EV: 1,832
- 2025 Cadillac Optiq: 3,468
- 2025 Chevy Equinox EV: 17,400
GM dealers will check all four tires and replace them if needed, free of charge. Dealers were notified on October 16. Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed out on December 1, 2025.
You can contact Chevrolet’s customer service number at 1-800-222-1020 or Cadillac’s at 1-800-333-4223. GM’s recall number is N252525030. Owners can also call the NHTSA hotline at 1-888-327-4236 or visit the nhtsa.gov website for more information.
The Chevy Equinox EV is now the third best-selling EV in the US, trailing only the Tesla Model Y and Model 3. Meanwhile, Cadillac’s entry-level Optiq SUV is the fifth-most-popular luxury EV. The recall is minor and only affects a small percentage of models, so it’s not expected to have a major impact.
If you want to test one of them for yourself, we can help you get started. Check out our links below to find available Chevy Equinox EV and Cadillac Optiq models near you.
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In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss Tesla’s earnings madness, Rivian layoffs, Ford pausing F-150 Lightning, and more.
The show is live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel.
As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in.
After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps:
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