Top Investor Questions for Tesla's 2024 Q4 Earnings Call

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Tesla’s Q4 earnings call is coming up, and just like Tesla has done in the past, they’ll be answering popular investor questions during their Q&A session.

The earnings call itself opens up at 5:30 PM EST on January 29, 2025 - and Travis Axelrod, Head of Investor Relations at Tesla, will be heading the event, as usual. Tesla Investor Relations will livestream the event, and we’ll have links available for you once they’re posted.

Q4 2024 Top Questions

Tesla is once again accepting questions for their Q&A portion of the call through Say Technologies. While the Say Q&A question voting isn’t over, some of the most popular questions will likely stick at this point. The current batch of questions is interesting and should provide additional clarity on what Tesla hopes to accomplish in 2025.

Here are the current top 10 questions:

1. Is unsupervised FSD still planned to be released in Texas and California this year? What hurdles must be overcome to make this happen? 

2. Is Optimus now mostly design locked for 2025 production?

3. When will Tesla start selling Optimus and price?

4. Elon has said publicly that long-term shareholders of Tesla will have the ability to invest in his other companies. Could you provide some clarity/color as to what that looks like? Brokerage firms use FIFO, so anyone who trades won’t have the true length of time as an investor.

5. Are there any discussions with other auto companies about licensing FSD?

6. Is it expected that Tesla will need to upgrade HW3 vehicles and if so, what is the timeline and expected impact to Tesla's CapEx?

7. What is the status on mass production of the Tesla Semi? How do you project it will affect revenue at scale?

8. Is there a new affordable Tesla model coming soon?

9. What technical breakthroughs will define "v14" of FSD, given then v13 is photon-to-control?

10. Is the Roadster still launching this year?

Note: We’ve made some grammatical corrections to the above questions to improve readability.

Interesting Questions

There are several other interesting questions that aren’t in the top 10, but making it into the top 10 isn’t a guarantee that Tesla will answer the question during their investor call, but they’ll at least be aware of what’s on investors’ minds.

Here are some of the more interesting questions investors have submitted:

• Can you please tie purchased FSD to our owner accounts vs. locked to the car? This will help us enjoy it in any Tesla we drive/buy and reward us for hanging in so long, some of us since 2017.

• Full voice control of the car, via Grok, will be a huge improvement. Can you elaborate on that functionality and when we will see it in cars?

• When are we going to get the extended battery pack for the Cybertruck, and what is the range?

• When will we see additional states added to Tesla insurance? Can you provide any additional info about the projects status?

• How will Tesla manage having a part-time CEO, with Elon being busy with DOGE, SpaceX, X and others? Is a strong COO, ala Gwynn Shotwell, being considered?

• Can you tell us some of the safety statistics for FSD v13.2 so far? How close is Tesla to achieving 1000 miles per intervention? 10,000 miles? Can Tesla make any safety data/metrics available to investors so we can more accurately track the rate of autonomy progress?

• Can you share the latest developments regarding the integration of dry cathode cells in the Cybertruck?

• When will the lower-cost model launch? And at what price point?

• Is there a supply continuity plan for LFP cell supply in the US pending tariffs or potential Chinese export restrictions - this includes both Megapacks and vehicles.

• Has Tesla given up on ramping up its solar roof?

• What is the status on mass production of the Tesla Semi? How do you project it will affect revenue at scale?

We’ve submitted our own question regarding FSD below:

• Tesla frequently highlights the number of miles between critical interventions as a key safety metric for FSD. Could Tesla consider publishing these figures quarterly to provide investors with greater clarity on FSD's progress?

If you’d like to see our question answered, you can upvote it here, or you can vote on other questions here.

Q&A Submissions and Voting

If you’re interested in seeing everything people have asked or would like to submit your own question, you can do that here. You must be logged into Say, the 3rd party shareholder verification site, with an account, with your Tesla shares linked in order to vote or propose questions. Question submission and voting closes on January 29, at 4:00 PM EST, right before the event.

It does take anywhere from 24-72 hours for your shares to be verified, depending on which institution holds them, so make sure you do that soon.

Once your ownership is validated, you can vote up questions you’re interested in hearing the answer to. Your vote weight is equivalent to the number of shares you have. If you choose to submit a question, your question will have an initial number of votes equivalent to your number of shares.

If you’re not able to join Tesla’s live call, we’ll have a highlight of the earnings call and the Q&A session soon afterward.

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Tesla's FSD In Europe Faces More Regulatory Delays

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Following the latest meeting of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), which decides safety regulations for vehicles, it seems that Tesla will be facing further delays and regulatory hurdles in Europe. The Telegraph in the UK reported on this story yesterday following the conclusion of UNECE discussions.

Tesla has been waiting for regulatory approval in Europe, which would pave the way for wider FSD deployment across the EU and other countries that adhere to UNECE regulations.

Regulatory Shut Down

The latest round of delays stems from efforts by the UK, Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands to push for additional testing and trials of autonomous systems. Progress toward approving vehicle autonomy in Europe has faced repeated setbacks, and this latest hurdle casts further doubt on the prospects for European customers awaiting FSD.

Regulatory changes that initially seemed on track to ease restrictions were stalled in September 2024 when the UK’s Department for Transport raised concerns, stating:

“While [a driver assistance system] may help reduce collisions, it may also introduce new safety risks.”

This perspective sounds like it comes from someone who has never actually used an advanced driver assist system—whether from Tesla or its competitors.

The UNECE, which oversees vehicle regulations in Europe, is set to meet again in June and November. However, based on the agenda from the most recent session, autonomy does not appear to be on the docket for the June meeting.

What This Means for FSD in Europe

Simply put, FSD isn’t coming to Europe anytime soon. While Tesla has some potential workarounds, none are ideal.

One option would be for Tesla to pursue regulatory exemptions on a nation-by-nation basis—requesting approval for each and every FSD feature separately. That means filing exemptions for lane changes, left and right turns, highway exits, and countless other functions. The bureaucratic process would be exhausting, requiring approval from each country individually.

Alternatively, Tesla could release a heavily restricted version of FSD that complies with current UNECE regulations. However, this would likely make the system impractical, as drivers would have to manually confirm every single action—down to something as simple as adjusting speed—using a physical button press.

For now, Europe’s regulatory framework remains a major roadblock to autonomy. Unless there’s a significant shift in policy, it’s unlikely that FSD will launch in Europe in 2025 as planned.

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Tesla to Expand Cabin Radar Support to More Models

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Tesla recently started rolling out an update that enabled the cabin radar in recent Model Ys and added support for first-row cabin sensing. This functionality not only lets Tesla replace the seat occupancy sensors in the front seats but also gives them a better idea of the size of the passengers — critical information when an accident occurs.

However, Tesla has now revealed that it won’t just be recent versions of Model Y that will receive these updates. Other recent vehicles also have a dormant in-cabin radar that will be activated in a future update.

Child Presence Detection

This front-row occupant sensing is only half of the update. Tesla also plans to add support to the rear seats that will let it detect occupants left in the vehicle. In a post on X, Tesla stated that at least 37 children die per year from heatstroke, just in the United States, according to the NHTSA. Tesla’s cabin radar will help reduce the number of deaths by detecting children left in the vehicle and alerting the owner or turning on the HVAC system.

The new radar has several safety-focused features, and they’re all designed to help protect someone left behind in a vehicle. First up - the radar will detect and classify passenger sizes to determine which airbags to deploy dynamically, helping to reduce injuries from shorter individuals sitting up front.

Additionally, the radar can differentiate an adult from a child or baby - and automatically and dynamically make the necessary safety adjustments on the fly. Tesla will also be able to detect heart rate and breathing through the radar - and has a series of safety steps it can take from here.

If a child or baby is detected being left behind in the vehicle, the Tesla app will immediately notify you and turn on the HVAC system to ensure their safety. In the case of an emergency, the vehicle will automatically call emergency services and report its location.

As a reminder, while Tesla vehicles outside of the United States support eCall, vehicles within the US cannot call 911 unless a phone is connected to the vehicle via Bluetooth. We hope that Tesla looks to add similar capabilities in North America to improve safety capabilities.

Supported Models

Although the cabin radar has only been activated in Model Ys produced in the last couple of years, Tesla said in their post on X that the radar is also available in recent Model 3s and the Cybertruck.

We did a little digging and confirmed that the part numbers for the cabin radar are the same for the 2024+ Model Y, 2024+ (new) Model 3, and the Cybertruck. So, these vehicles should also receive the latest cabin radar features.

Although the 2023 Model Y features a different part number, 2022 and 2023 Model Ys have also been receiving the front-row cabin sensing feature in Tesla’s 2025.2.6 update, but it is less clear whether they’ll receive the rear seats update later this year. The Model S and Model X also include a cabin radar, but the part number also differs from the cabin radar for the 2024 Model 3 and Model Y.

While the new Model Y isn’t available to check against on Tesla’s Electronic Parts Catalog, it looks like Tesla has been shipping the new 4D cabin radar in at least the 2024+ versions of their Model 3, Model Y and Cybertruck.

We expect rear-seat sensing to arrive on vehicles with the latest cabin radar later this year, while it’s unclear whether the other vehicles with the older cabin radar will receive it.

Tesla mentioned that rear-seat support will arrive in Q3 2025 for the refreshed Model Y. Based on the different interior sizes and spaces, sensor calibration and testing for other models may come slightly later.

Hopefully, the upcoming refresh for the Model S and Model X will also be able to receive this update later this year.

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