Tesla will report its third quarter earnings results later this Wednesday, minutes after the market closes.
As done in the past, the company used the Say Technologies platform to garner questions from retail and institutional shareholders.
More than 2,000 questions were submitted on the platform, with the top voted ones focusing on updates to the Robotaxi fleet, the deployment of Optimus, energy storage demand, and plans for new models.
Over the past three months — since the company reported its second quarter earnings — Tesla‘s stock surged over 30%. It closed at $442.60 on Tuesday.
In the third quarter, the company reached a new record in quarterly deliveries, with 497,099 vehicles delivered, as US demand surged ahead of the EV tax credit deadline.
At the same time, Tesla is preparing to hold its Annual Shareholders Meeting, in which the major proposal by the Board of Directors is an ambitious pay package for CEO Elon Musk, that could reach $1 trillion if the — ambitious — goals are achieved.
The compensation plan is linked to a $7.5 trillion valuation on the company, plus one million humanoid robots delivered and one million robotaxis on the road.
Robotaxi
The top-voted question on Say Technologies this Tuesday had over 3,600 votes representing 4.3 million shares.
The investor questioned: “What are the latest Robotaxi metrics (fleet size, cumulative miles, rides completed, intervention rates), and when will safety drivers be removed?”
Tesla‘s Robotaxi service was launched four months ago in Austin, with a safety driver on the passenger seat.
Since the latest earnings call, the ride-hailing service has expanded to other US states, including California.
Unlike the rides in Austin, which always have a safety operator in the passenger seat, in California, there is a safety monitor behind the wheel.
This has led several people to compare the service to other ride-hailing apps such as Uber, where it is possible that the driver owns a Tesla and uses the company’s (Supervised) Full Self-Driving system.
The Robotaxi service in Austin now also covers a larger geofenced area, including freeways. For safety, a human operator remains behind the wheel on trips that use them.
In early September, Musk wrote on X that “the safety driver is just there for the first few months to be extra safe,” noting that there “should be no safety driver by end of year.”
The ride-hailing service uses an ‘unsupervised’ version of Tesla‘s advanced assisted driving software, the Full Self-Driving (FSD).
The service is provided by a fleet of Model Ys modified with the Robotaxi FSD, as the company has not yet started production of the Cybercab.
In the same question, the shareholder asked “what are the obstacles still preventing unsupervised FSD [Full Self-Driving] from being deployed to customer vehicles?”
The FSD (Supervised) had its “second biggest update ever” earlier this month, with the introduction of Version 14 — which has, since then, received three updates in just 15 days.
On Tuesday, with the v14.1.3 update, regular customers started receiving the update, which was previously only available to a select group with early access.
Musk wrote on X earlier this month that “by V14.3, your car will feel like it is sentient.”
Upcoming Models
In July, several shareholders questioned Tesla about plans for upcoming new vehicles, including more affordable models.
Since then, the company has launched several trims of the best-selling Model Y and Model 3 across the globe.
In the Chinese market, Tesla introduced the Model Y L, a three-row iteration of the SUV, and a longer-range Model 3, reaching 830 km (516 miles).
Earlier this month, the company launched the Standard version of the Model Y in both the US and Europe. A Standard Model 3 was also released in the US.
Despite these new launches, over 3,000 shareholders (representing 2.1 million shares) upvoted a question focused on the possibility of leveraging the unboxed platform used in the upcoming Cybercab model.
“What are the plans for new car models? Will Tesla build compact car models leveraging the unboxed Cybercab platform? Will Tesla build a traditional SUV and pickup truck in the Cybertruck platform?” — a shareholder asked.
The company is introducing a new ‘Unboxed Process’ for Cybercab production, in which different sections of the vehicle are manufactured separately and later combined during the final assembly stage.
The patent for the manufacturing process was granted and published late last month by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
Similarly, another investor asked a question — receiving just 135 votes, but representing over 1.6 million shares — about “the possibility of an extended wheelbase, 3-row SUV version of the Cybertruck to compete with the likes of the [Ford] Expedition or [Cadillac] Escalade.”
In 2023, Musk projected an annual production rate of 250,000 Cybertrucks “probably sometime in 2025.”
However, and according to data released by Cox Automotive, the model represented only 5,385 of Tesla‘s 179,525 vehicles sold in the third quarter.
Between January 1 and September 30, Tesla sold 16,097 Cybertrucks, just 2,000 units above the third quarter of 2024 alone (three months).
Other Products
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, who has the most bullish price target on Tesla (at $600), reaffirmed on Tuesday that the company’s “story going forward is around the AI transformation being led by the autonomous and robotics initiatives.”
Last week, RBC Capital estimated that Tesla could capture 5% of the projected $9 trillion humanoid robot market by 2050, which led to a price target increase (to $500).
According to Say Technologies, 2,200 shareholders, representing 1.9 million shares, want to know “what are the present challenges in bringing Optimus to market.”
The retail investor who posted the questions is “considering app control software, engineering hardware, training general mobility models, training task specific models, training voice models, implementing manufacturing, and establishing supply chains.”
In the third quarter of 2025, Tesla also set a record deployment of 12.5 GWh with its energy storage products.
According to Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Andres Sheppard, the brand’s energy storage product year to date “has surpassed all of 2024’s deployment,” and the firm continues to expect energy storage to generate over $11 billion in total annual revenue.
Another retail investor questioned “what is the demand/backlog for Megapack, Powerwall, Solar, or energy storage systems,” and whether Tesla is “planning to supply power to other hyperscalers,” given the “current AI boom.”
The question got 1,800 votes, representing 3 million shares, and was the second most voted in the platform.
