Following Elon Musk’s remarks at Davos suggesting imminent regulatory clearance for Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) in China, multiple unnamed sources within China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology have indicated that there is no plan to grant approval in the near term. Chinese regulators continue to review Tesla’s safety data and software performance, and have requested additional real-world testing results before authorizing any commercial FSD deployment. This pushback raises the prospect of delayed revenue recognition from software subscriptions in Tesla’s largest growth market, potentially weighing on its long-term margin targets tied to FSD adoption.

Elon Musk’s recently reinstated pay plan — with a potential value of up to $1 trillion over the next decade — underscores the dramatic escalation of CEO compensation. According to the Economic Policy Institute, top-end CEO pay has risen 1,094% over the past 50 years, far outpacing the 26% gain in typical worker compensation. Tesla’s board tied Musk’s payout entirely to market capitalization and operational milestones, including consecutive annual revenue of $300 billion and sustained automotive gross margins above 25%. Only 12% of Tesla customers have subscribed to FSD to date, highlighting the execution risk investors face before these stock-based incentives fully vest.

Tesla has set a February start date for collecting video and motion-capture data at its Austin Gigafactory to train the Optimus humanoid robot in real-factory environments. For over a year, engineers in Fremont have recorded themselves handling vehicle parts and operating conveyor systems to generate training datasets. The move to Austin will double the company’s data-collection capacity, leveraging the facility’s thousands of assembly-line workers. This expansion follows CEO Elon Musk’s projection that Optimus will progress from simple tasks today to more complex industrial roles by year-end, a development that could unlock significant long-term cost savings in manufacturing labor.

On January 22, Tesla began operating its Model Y Robotaxi fleet in Austin without in-vehicle safety drivers, a critical milestone in its autonomous-ride sharing strategy. The robotaxis run a more advanced version of Tesla’s FSD software while trailing vehicles provide external supervision. Investors cheered the move, as it demonstrates that Tesla’s internal safety thresholds for unsupervised operation have been met. Concurrent partnerships with insurance underwriters offering rate discounts based on Tesla driving data further validate the safety statistics. This unsupervised launch sets the stage for the planned Cybercab production start in April, and represents a pivotal proof-of-concept ahead of broader commercial rollout.