Tesla doubles down on autonomous driving and says goodbye to the Model S/X

During the presentation of results for the fourth quarter of 2025, Elon Musk surprised everyone attending the event by announcing that production of the company’s premium models, the Model S and the Model X, will begin to be gradually reduced from next quarter until it stops completely and for good.

The Model S and the Model X are therefore going to become part of history in this year, 2026. Elon Musk justified the company’s decision, asserting that the goal is to redirect the resources currently used to produce these two vehicles at the Fremont plant in California toward the production of the Optimus humanoid robot.

This puts a definitive end to a stage of the company that has led it to where it stands today. Let us recall that without the Model S, which hit the market in 2012, and without the Model X, whose sales began three years later in 2015, the Model 3 and the Model Y would never have become a reality. These last two models have allowed the company to obtain the revenue needed to now tackle other projects focused on robotics and autonomous driving.

The end of an era

Elon Musk has explained that the withdrawal of the Model S and the Model X from the market is part of a strategic restructuring of the company to prioritize the autonomous future of Tesla, centered on robotaxis and general-purpose robots based on artificial intelligence.

“We expect to reduce S and X production next quarter and practically stop it. It’s a bit sad, but the time has come to close these programs and move toward a future based on autonomy.”

The Tesla plant in Fremont, California, which until now assembled these two premium models, will thus be converted into a production line that will initially produce thousands of Optimus robot units, with a projected future capacity of up to one million units per year. The company continues to work on developing this humanoid robot based on artificial intelligence, convinced that it will end up becoming a fundamental pillar for Tesla’s long-term growth alongside its autonomous driving technology.

So much so that Elon Musk has even claimed that in the not-too-distant future we will all have one of these robots, which will help us carry out the most arduous and unpleasant tasks we currently have to perform. A claim that bears a strong resemblance to the one made by those who, in the 1990s, asserted that one day we would all carry a mobile phone in our pocket. Something that many at the time considered an exaggeration.