--- title: "This May Be the Most Damning Single Fact in Tesla’s Quarterly Earnings Report" description: "New data in Tesla's latest quarterly earnings report reveals that progress at its Robotaxi service is actually stalling." date: "2026-07-24" modified: "2026-07-24" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/advanced-transport/damning-fact-tesla-quarterly-earnings-report" categories: - "Advanced Transport" - "Self-Driving Vehicles" - "Tesla" --- # This May Be the Most Damning Single Fact in Tesla’s Quarterly Earnings Report ![Two men look at a Tesla Robotaxi Cybercab on display at a pop-up event at Fareground Austin in downtown Austin during the South by Southwest Conference.]() *Jay Janner / The Austin American-Statesman via Getty Images* Tesla's latest earnings report was very bad news for the company. In the second quarter, it made $1.1 billion in net profit, less than the $1.2 billion it reported a year earlier. Vehicle sales were up, but profits remain about a quarter billion short of expectations, and the automaker's cash flow is negative for the first time in over two years. But the real blow has been the slow rollout of its Robotaxi service. Elon Musk has staked his automaker's future on fully autonomous vehicles, [promising]() investors it would help push Tesla's valuation to an eyebrow-raising $30 trillion — approximately the gross domestic product of the United States, for perspective. And importantly, he promised to get this done quickly. Before launching Tesla's first Robotaxi service in Austin last summer, Musk estimated that over 1,000 of the self-driving cabs would be roaming the streets "within a few months." Now, a year later, Tesla doesn't even have a hundred Robotaxis in operation. And its efforts seem to actually be *regressing*. According to a new chart the company released Wednesday, the Robotaxi network racked up fewer miles from paying customers in the second quarter than it did in the first. The chart, which may be the most dismal single aspect of the entire earnings cycle, misleadingly displays this data as cumulative miles to make it appear like the Robotaxi service is steadily growing. But [*TechCrunch* broke it down](), finding that in the first quarter, Tesla's driverless cabs carrying paying passengers drove around 1.1 million miles, but fell to just 700,000 miles in the second — cratering by over a third. The misleading chart isn't the only way Tesla has tried to dress up its stalling efforts. A day before releasing the earnings report, it announced that it was expanding to two more cities in Florida, Tampa and Orlando — without sharing the size of those fleets, [*Electrek* noted](). It should tell you something that Tesla has gone to great lengths to keep the size of its operation under wraps. In June, *Bloomberg* [reported]() that its fleet size across all cities was just 59 robotaxis. Only third of those are fully unsupervised; the other vehicles have a human safety monitor sitting in the front seats. It's also tried to play up its seemingly spotless safety record. Before the report, the official Tesla account on X [bragged]() that there were "0 notable incidents across over 380,000 miles traveled by Robotaxi." But Tesla doesn't define what a "notable incident" is. Its vehicles have regularly been caught driving erratically and at times dangerously. Only a day after launching in Tampa, one of its Robotaxis was [spotted blundering the wrong way down a one way street]() in the city. Musk has frequently emphasized that he's "paranoid about safety" to explain why progress has moved slowly, while at the same time promising to scale things up rapidly. In January he [projected]() that the Robotaxis would cover half the US population by the end of the year. But investors are running out of patience. Tesla shares plunged by 15 percent on Thursday after the earnings were released, in part due to frustration over the Robotaxis' laggard progress, and another three percent on Friday. "More ​is needed to show that Tesla's capabilities are inflecting" on robotaxis, Barclays analysts said in a note per *Reuters*, noting that Tesla didn't provide new expansion targets ​and "hasn't met previously laid out targets." **More on Tesla:** [*It's Looking Like the Cybertruck Is the Biggest Flop in Automotive History*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()