Insane amount of money you'd have today if you invested $10,000 in Tesla when Elon Musk first announced robotaxi

It's a new dawn for Tesla, and while there are still concerns about Elon Musk's position as CEO, the company is keen to show off its technological credentials as it branches out from rolling electric vehicles off the production line.

While Tesla has faced more than a few bumps in the road in 2025, it's finally making good on Elon Musk's long-held vision of getting autonomous robotaxis rolling.

After being announced all the way back in 2016 and facing numerous delays, some feared that robotaxis would never make it onto our roads.

It might cost a little more than expected to ride in one of Tesla's new automated cabs, but if you're an investor in the EV Goliath, you should have more than enough money to splash out on one of these futuristic rides.

As noted by The Motley Fool, a £10,000 investment back when Musk announced robotaxi in 2016 would now be worth £235,276. £10,000 is around $13,600, and with Tesla shares being up a whopping 2250% since then, it works out at a bank-busting $306,000 return. Making $296,000 profit in nine years isn’t bad at all.

Obviously, not everyone had $10,000 or the foresight to invest in Tesla back in 2016, but if you did, you'd be sitting pretty on $235,276 right now.

The site reminds us: "A 2,250% return is obviously well beyond what either the S&P 500 or the FTSE 100 has returned over the same time. And there’s an important lesson here for investors.

"If the future returns are large enough, it can be worth waiting for quite a long time. In fact, this is something Tesla shareholders might want to keep in mind at the moment."

There are some obvious hurdles in Tesla's way right now, with the biggest being that robotaxis still require a human passenger in the front seat to intervene if something goes wrong. Still, The Motley Fool reiterates that this is something Waymo has overcome, and if Tesla's biggest rival can do it, you can bet Mr. Musk is working on alleviating this problem.

Other kinks that need ironing out are robotaxis' currently limited availability in Austin, as well as the fact that it can't operate at night, near airports, or during bad weather.

Given that it's taken Musk so long to deliver on his robotaxi promises, it's disappointing for some that the launch hasn't matched all his bluster.

As for whether it's 'too late' to invest in Tesla, The Motley Fool concludes: "Despite climbing 8%, the Tesla share price is still 7% down since the start of the year. But despite weak car sales, the firm is arguably in a stronger overall position than it was in January.

“That means investors might want to take a closer look at the stock. It’s not a finished product yet, but the company has made a big step towards its end goal."

There's been plenty of fluctuation with Tesla stock prices, but you only have to look at where it is compared to this time last year to see it might've been a shrewd investment.