Elon Musk continues to push optimistic goal for Tesla Full Self-Driving (2025)

Elon Musk has always been optimistic about when Tesla would be able to solve Full Self-Driving and what its capabilities would be, and sometimes, he’s been a tad too optimistic.

We have heard for many years that Tesla will solve Full Self-Driving by the “end of this year,” and “this” means whichever year he said it in. But this time, he’s putting all his eggs in the 2025 basket, and it was further reiterated in a recent post from the Tesla CEO on X.

Musk’s Tesla has launched several versions of Full Self-Driving in recent months that are extremely impressive. I’ve tried some of these recently-released versions within the last week, and I’ve grown extremely impressed with the performance of FSD, especially in some situations that are even tricky for humans to maneuver.

However, Tesla’s FSD suite handled it flawlessly. That’s the kind of thing investors and consumers need to see before it is released, especially as we’ve all heard the “this year” speech for nearly a decade. It might be the real thing this time, especially as the company is leaning heavily on the Robotaxi fleet to take it to the next level.

Earlier today, Tesla’s official account on X indicated that your car will be able to drive itself to your house. Musk had a witty and simple reply, something that indicates and reiterates his optimistic outlook for FSD as it continues to be refined and adjusted for what will likely be a June release in Austin, Texas:

This year https://t.co/2eCadrXYfd

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 15, 2025

Of course, this is not a confirmation that Tesla will roll out Full Self-Driving that is unsupervised within the next few months. It is increasingly obvious that Musk is gaining tons of confidence in what the company is doing, as he has reiterated this end-of-year target on several occasions.

It does not appear that the release of FSD will be a widespread one. Instead, it seems as if Tesla will roll out the Robotaxi fleet in several cities at first, as it has already taken several regulatory steps in Texas and California.

Tesla receives its first robotaxi permit in California

If Tesla is able to come through on this, it would be massive for the company and its investors, especially as the FSD suite is a major point of value for the future. However, not coming through on this timeline would be a massive misstep for the company. Musk’s adamance regarding the 2025 rollout of self-driving features is truly the most committed we’ve ever seen him toward this sort of timeline.

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Tesla has doubled down on its potential launch date for the Robotaxi ride-hailing platform, which will utilize the Cybercab and other vehicles in its lineup to offer driverless rides in Austin, Texas.

Tesla said earlier this year that it was in talks with the City of Austin to launch its first Robotaxi rides, and it planned to launch the platform in June.

This has been a widely discussed timeline in the community, with some confident in the company’s ability to offer it based on the progress of the Full Self-Driving suite.

However, others are skeptical of it based on Tesla’s history of meeting timelines, especially regarding its rollout of FSD.

Nevertheless, Tesla was asked when it would be able to offer Robotaxi rides and where, and it clearly is not backing down from that June date:

In Austin, 🔜

— Tesla (@Tesla) April 18, 2025

It is getting to a point where Tesla is showing incredible confidence regarding the rollout of the Robotaxi in June. We have not seen this kind of reiteration regarding the rollout of something regarding autonomy from Tesla at any point in the past.

CEO Elon Musk has even been increasingly confident that Tesla will meet its target. Earlier this week, he said the vehicles will be able to roll off production lines and drive themselves straight to a customer’s house:

Elon Musk continues to push optimistic goal for Tesla Full Self-Driving

There could be some discussion of an acceptable grace period, as the timeline for the Robotaxi rollout could still be considered a success, even if it were a month or two late. However, if it were pushed back further into 2025 or even 2026, skepticism regarding these timelines would continue to persist.

As of right now, it seems Tesla is extremely confident it will meet its goal.

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Among the several companies that have had the opportunity to add Tesla Semi all-electric Class 8 trucks to their fleets earlier than others, the most notable is arguably Frito-Lay, which has utilized the vehicle for a couple of years now.

However, as their fleet is making more local runs and there are undoubtedly plans to expand to more Semi units, the company has recognized it needs additional Megachargers to give juice to their trucks.

As a result, Frit-Lay decided to build more chargers at their Bakersfield, California facility, according to new permits filed by Tesla:

🚨 Frito-Lay is building an 8-stall Megacharger array at its factory in Bakersfield, California https://t.co/qARfJjogXF pic.twitter.com/gvorIVxsoc

— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) April 18, 2025

There are already chargers at the company’s Modesto, California, factory, but Bakersfield is roughly three hours south of Modesto.

Interestingly, Tesla is calling the chargers “Semi Chargers” in the filing, potentially hinting that it is no longer referring to them as “Megachargers,” as they have been in the past. This is a relatively minor detail, but it is worth taking note of.

In 2022, Frito-Lay began installing these chargers in preparation for the Semi to become one of the company’s main logistics tools for deliveries in California and surrounding states.

Frito-Lay is not the only company that has chosen to utilize the Tesla Semi for these early “pilot” runs. PepsiCo has also been a company that has used the Semi very publicly over the past two years.

Additionally, the Tesla Semi participated in the Run on Less EV trucking study back in late 2023, where it managed to complete a 1,000-mile run in a single day:

Tesla Semi logs 1,000-mile day in Run on Less EV trucking study

Tesla is planning to ramp production of the Semi late this year. On the Q4 2024 Earnings Call, VP of Vehicle Engineering Lars Moravy said the company would be focusing on the first builds of the Semi’s high-volume design late this year before ramping production in the early portion of 2026:

“We just closed out the Semi factory roof and walls last week in Reno, a schedule which is great with the weather. In Reno, you never know what’s going to happen. But we’re prepping for mechanical installation of all the equipment in the coming months. The first builds of the high-volume Semi design will come late this year in 2025 and begin ramping early in 2026.”

Tesla will build these units at a new Semi production facility located in Reno near its Gigafactory. The company is getting closer to finishing construction, as a drone video from this morning showed the facility is coming along at a good pace:

🚨Tesla Semi factory progress update: pic.twitter.com/dlzIjKwfT3

— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) April 18, 2025

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Tesla has confirmed the rollout of a new, critical feature that is coming to the United States for the first time.

However, the Cybertruck will unfortunately miss out on it.

Tesla has a distinct advantage among many automakers as their Over-the-Air updates make their vehicles better over time. While many automakers have the ability to roll out new features through these updates, Tesla has been shown to be one of the companies that can truly make things significantly better with their cars.

A new feature coming to the United States and now rolling out is Adaptive Headlights. This feature will be applied to Model S, Model 3, Model X, and Model Y vehicles with the proper hardware.

Adaptive Headlights are different than your typical auto highbeams in the way that they can dim certain pixels of the bulb to keep visibility for the Tesla driver high, while eliminating glare for those who are in oncoming cars:

🚨 Tesla’s Adaptive Headlights dim only select pixels of the bulb to increase visibility for all drivers, while keeping brightness at a maximum for you

Perhaps one of the coolest features around

pic.twitter.com/WCEsU31um8

— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) April 17, 2025

For the first time, Tesla is rolling out the feature to these vehicles in the United States. European Tesla owners were able to use the function several months back, but it was pending approval in the U.S.

At first, Tesla VP of Vehicle Engineering, Lars Moravy, said that the Cybertruck would have this feature. However, in late February, he confirmed that he was incorrect and the all-electric pickup will not have the ability to get Adaptive Headlights, as the company could not fit the correct hardware in the Cybertruck’s module:

@wmorrill3 is right – I was a little overzealous and my memory failed. S/X/3/Y have it – but those thin little headlight modules in CT, just couldn’t get it in there.

— Lars (@larsmoravy) February 28, 2025

The feature certainly makes visibility better for everyone on the road and will improve overall safety while eliminating the pesky and annoying feeling of being blinded by high beams.

The Adaptive Headlight feature for Tesla is part of the company’s Spring Update for 2025.

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