Business Tesla discontinuing Model S and Model X to make room for robots - "Musk said the reasons for cancelling the vehicle programs was to make room at Tesla’s Fremont factory for production of its Optimus humanoid robot."

Production of the two pioneering models will end in the second quarter of 2026, Elon Musk says.​

by Andrew J. Hawkins
Jan 28, 2026, 10:49 PM UTC


Image: Tesla

Tesla will discontinue the Model S and Model X in the second quarter of 2026, Elon Musk said in an earnings call with investors today.

Musk said the reasons for cancelling the vehicle programs was to make room at Tesla’s Fremont factory for production of its Optimus humanoid robot.

“It’s time to basically bring the Model S and X programs to an end with an honorable discharge, because we’re really moving into a future that is based on autonomy,” he said. “So if you’re interested in buying a Model S and X, now would be the time to order it.”

The Model S is Tesla’s luxury sedan, first released in 2012, while the Model X was its SUV with gull-wing doors, introduced in 2015. Sales of both vehicles has been declining steadily, as the company shifted focus to its mass-market Model 3 and Model Y.


Tesla Model X Image: Tesla

In 2025, Tesla sold 50,850 “other models,” a category that includes Model S, Model X, and Cybertruck. That represented a 40.2 percent decrease in sales, year over year.

Musk has been attempting to transform Tesla from an automotive company to one that makes self-driving cars and humanoid robots. The transition has been rocky, with Tesla reporting a 61 percent decrease in profits in the fourth quarter.

Developing…

Source (Archive)

 

[Lady Adjani]

It's a better bet to automate the bog-standard forklift with a boring laptop in place of the driver's seat than put a humanoid robot in it's place that has to use human-like arms and legs and hands to manipulate the controls.

Even so, it's probably still cheaper to just employ a bunch of minimum wage workers than it would be to replace everyone with machines and then hire people qualified to oversee and maintain them.

Once they make a robot that can mow my lawn, walk the dog and cook me dinner I'll be the first one in line to buy one, but as it stands it's really hard to get excited for these projects, when their entire selling point is how they can do very basic tasks currently already being performed by actual human beings for minimum wage.

 

[Zoobles]

Tesla market cap to $5 trillion if you can fuck the robots

 

[Gottahavemysips]

The whole Optimus thing is something I don't really see working out. It seems like Musk's making a gamble that AI will be good enough to actually handle them when they hit the market, but I'm really doubtful that some of the more advanced functions they've shown aren't just jeets remote controlling them.
My guess is that they'll sell some kind of subscription service like the self driving in Teslas but it's just a remote jeet if it's not ready in time so influencers can gush about how great they are. Will it ruin him? Probably not, the guy has so many people licking his taint that investors will probably cover the spread. I'm sure Musk will continue to push for more Indians in the United States up until there's nothing left even for anybody though.

 

[Whiskey]

I don know... I wanna cheer on the robots. Sometimes you just do cool things not the most cost effective.

 

[The Lawgiver]

but I'm really doubtful that some of the more advanced functions they've shown aren't just jeets remote controlling them.

The more advanced stuff shown off has already been shown to be people RC controlling them through VR headsets IIRC with them going "Oh hopefully in the future ba d aba ha ba" investor gobbledygook shit.

I'm more intrigued by people that were going around a few years back that somehow managed to make pretty neat or weird robots on their own time (though it seemingly was mainly using other peoples open source shit it's still intriguing). There's still peopel doing it but they seem like peopel with a lot more easier access to resources and cash than the people I saw a few years ago.

This guy brought 10 whole antichrists into existence to terrorize the public for instance.

 

[kiwirevolving]

you know how people kept calling it Tesla model SS after Elon did the nazi salute?

they will just call Elon's robots nazi robots or some shit

 

[HX-2]

Perhaps Elon Musk is completely unaware what the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) design principle is?

I think he subscribes to the KISS MY ASSHOLE principle

 

[Super-Chevy454]

Interesting idea, as long as these robots don't go rogue like ED-209 in Robocop.

 

[Daddy's Little Kitten]

"My cars don't sell, so I'm building robots."

5D chess move

 

[Disdainer of the Plebs]

This is because Trump ended the EV subsidies, and anyone left that would still voluntarily buy one hates Elon’s guts.

 

[TowinKarz]

t seems like Musk's making a gamble that AI will be good enough to actually handle them when they hit the market, but I'm really doubtful that some of the more advanced functions they've shown aren't just jeets remote controlling them.

Calling it a gamble implies he's done any actual math and probability/risk assessment.

I willing to bet money (ha!) that he hasn't done any such thing and is just bouncing from gratification to gratification and calling it a strategy. Or his handlers are doing so realizing that he can't run the company they depend on for shit without massaging his autism as bold visionary moves for the investors sake.

He got bored with space ships, nobody praises him anymore for space ships... so he moved on to the Hyperloop.... until he got bored and nobody praised him for it .... so then it was cars..... and now, same thing, he's bored, nobody's praising him, so robots.....

And the same way the self-driving feature on Teslas ultimately didn't work as advertised? Doesn't bode well for any plan to have any self-contained ability to stay upright and navigate in these things.

If anything? It'll be a subscription service that connects you to Musk's master computer to drive all the robots that will be discontinued due to "technical difficulties" when the hype runs out and he gets bored, bricking the bots and leaving you with an expensive Tesla-brand hat rack for your house. You'll never see how the sausage is made, you'll just have to trust him.

And far too many still do.

All this ranting of mine is just futiley trying to warn regular people too wedded to futurism and technophilia to not get blinded a fourth time by this guy, they won't listen, but it keeps me sane.

They'll be back in 10 years signing up for the Mars mission...or one of his cyberbrains.... unable or unwilling to learn any lessons from the broke-down robot, car, and symbolic hyperloop tickets they still have dibs on for when it gets built (any day now!) in their home.

 

[Unarmed Gunman]

I'm surprised they're not discontinuing the ugly ass, useless, Delorean-wannabe cybertruck.

 

[quaawaa]

I'm surprised they're not discontinuing the ugly ass, useless, Delorean-wannabe cybertruck.

Rumor is that Elon personally designed it so no one dares criticize it.

 

[Fount of BadSpeak]

I for one love the idea of a cool robo servant, and this is the kind of sci-fi shit that I have always wanted. That being said, every tech company, including Tesla, has shown themselves to be ontologically evil and I would not spend 150k on a spyware bot that will stop working in two years when they shut down the servers that it has to phone home to every five minutes. Even if by some miracle these weren't cartoonishly anti-consumer, I really don't see much use for a humanoid robot outside of elderly care and personal servants for people with more money than sense. Any serious industry is going to opt for a much more straightforward robot that is designed for the task, and even customer service would sooner opt for a touch screen tablet than a robo servant.

Tesla market cap to $5 trillion if you can fuck the robots

I think the first sex robot will unironically issue a development frenzy, given that sex/porn has fueled a lot of technological development in the past century. I know some companies in Japan and China have been working on doing just that, though I imagine any actual market ready model is probably a couple of decades off at least.