That doesn’t sound particularly reassuring. But for investors, the bigger question is whether these problems actually change the outlook for Tesla stock<\/a>. The answer? Probably not — at least not yet.<\/p>\n Beginning stages <\/p>\n The reality is that nearly every disruptive technology looked messy in its early stages.<\/p>\n Early smartphones had poor battery life and unreliable software. Early electric vehicles had limited range and almost no charging infrastructure. Today’s AI systems still hallucinate information regularly, despite trillions of dollars now flowing into the sector. Self-driving taxis are unlikely to be any different.<\/p>\n The truth is, Tesla is attempting something far more ambitious than simply launching a ride-hailing service. The company is trying to build a scalable autonomous transportation platform powered primarily through vision-based AI instead of expensive lidar-heavy systems used by competitors like Waymo<\/a>, whose vehicles reportedly cost well over $120,000. This isn’t trivial, because the valuation implications here could be enormous if Tesla succeeds.<\/p>\n Perhaps $1 trillion up for grabs <\/p>\n Wedbush analyst Dan Ives has estimated that Tesla’s AI and autonomous-driving opportunity could eventually be worth more than $1 trillion. Ark Invest has gone even further, arguing that robotaxis could eventually represent roughly 90% of Tesla’s enterprise value by 2029 as the global autonomous ride-hailing market potentially grows toward $10 trillion.<\/p>\n Put simply, Tesla’s long-term upside is no longer tied solely to how many cars it sells. The market is increasingly valuing the company based on the possibility that autonomous transportation, AI software, and recurring mobility revenue will eventually become significantly larger businesses than vehicle manufacturing itself.<\/p>\n Tesla has delivered more than 8 million vehicles globally, with roughly half already equipped with Full Self-Driving (Supervised) hardware. That gives Tesla one of the world’s largest real-world driving datasets, which is a major advantage for training autonomous AI systems.<\/p>\n But execution risk remains very real.<\/p>\n Unlike traditional software products, autonomous driving systems face near-zero tolerance for errors. A buggy smartphone app is annoying. A buggy autonomous vehicle system can become a regulatory and legal disaster almost instantly not to mention a danger to human life.<\/p>\n That said, autonomous systems improve through real-world exposure, data collection, and iterative machine learning. If Tesla eventually succeeds at scaling autonomous transportation globally, even a fraction of the trillion-dollar market estimates currently being discussed could dramatically increase the company’s long-term valuation.<\/p>\n If Tesla can capture just 10% to 20% of that $1 trillion estimate, that would imply an additional $100 billion to $200 billion beyond Tesla’s traditional automotive business.<\/p>\n That is ultimately why you should continue to pay close attention to robotaxis, even when the rollout looks messy.<\/p>\n We just issued ‘double down’ alerts on 3 stocks \u2014 find out if\u00a0Tesla made our list <\/p>\n Ever feel like you missed the boat in buying the most successful stocks? Then you\u2019ll want to hear this.<\/p>\n On rare occasions, our expert team of analysts issues a \u201cDouble Down\u201d stock<\/a> recommendation\u00a0for companies that they think are about to pop. If you\u2019re worried you\u2019ve already missed your chance to invest, now is the best time to buy before it\u2019s too late. And the numbers speak for themselves:<\/p>\n Nvidia:\u00a0if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2009,\u00a0you\u2019d have $558,537!*<\/p>\n Apple: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2008, you\u2019d have $58,859!*<\/p>\n Netflix: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2004, you\u2019d have $477,813!*<\/p>\n Right now, we\u2019re issuing \u201cDouble Down\u201d alerts for three incredible companies, available when you join\u00a0Stock Advisor, and there may not be another chance like this anytime soon.<\/p>\n See the 3 stocks \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n *Stock Advisor returns as of May 18, 2026<\/p>\n Jeff Siegel<\/a> has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Tesla. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Person](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/c5eebe3af8b378178fdaac5f2b594c06.jpeg\")
Image source: Getty Images. Scale and execution <\/p>\n