January 23, 2026 – At the Davos World Economic Forum yesterday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk made a bold announcement. He stated that Tesla aims to establish a “wide – reaching” autonomous robotaxi (Robotaxi) operation network across the United States by the end of 2026.
Musk mentioned that although the robotaxi service has already been launched in some cities, it will become “extremely, extremely widespread” in the US by the end of this year. Back in June 2025, Tesla’s robotaxi service kicked off its commercial operations in Austin, Texas. However, at that time, safety supervisors were present in the vehicles. Later, the company rolled out a ride – sharing service in San Francisco, which was operated by human drivers. Up to now, Tesla has not yet secured the necessary permits to test or operate fully autonomous vehicles on public roads.
This is not the first time Musk has made predictions about the commercialization timeline of fully autonomous driving technology. In 2019, he told investors that he was “highly confident” Tesla could launch self – driving vehicles in 2020. But subsequent plans have all faced delays.
The competition in the robotaxi field is heating up. Currently, Waymo, a subsidiary of Google’s parent company Alphabet, dominates this sector. As of last year, Waymo had been providing commercial services in five US cities and recently expanded to Miami. Moreover, Zoox, backed by Amazon, entered the market in 2025 as well.
During the Davos Forum, Musk also touched on other business aspects. He revealed that Tesla plans to start selling its humanoid robot Optimus to the public by the end of 2027. Additionally, Musk shared his views on the development speed of artificial intelligence. He believes that by the end of 2026 or 2027, there could be AI systems that are smarter than any human.
