We know Tesla has ambitions well beyond cars – shooting for the stars, launching humanoid robots, and wanting to help meet the world's energy needs. They even have a diner in West Hollywood. And while CEO Elon Musk may have a complicated love-hate relationship with artificial intelligence, his company is relying on it increasingly.Tesla / CarBuzzProduction of the self-driving two-person Cybercab has begun in Austin, soon to be followed by the self-driving Semi tractor-trailer for long-haul duty, Musk said in last night's webcast about financial results. But what about the new Roadster? That relationship is also... complicated.Tesla cars with Full Self-Driving (Supervised) technology are getting decent reviews, except from the driver who nearly got creamed by a train last month in California when his Model 3 failed to recognize the lowered crossing gate and lunged forward across the tracks, seconds before the passenger train sped through the intersection. But apparently there are limits to how far Tesla intends to take artificial intelligence in its future products.That's where the new Roadster comes in. That would be the Roadster which has not materialized beyond the prototype stage for nine very long years, but could debut "in a month or so." Yes, we've heard that before. Like we said, it's complicated. Going 'Almost Entirely Autonomous' Tesla During Tesla's Q1 financial presentation on April 22, an analyst asked if the company's view on new vehicle models has evolved, hoping for Musk to shed light on plans for a new compact vehicle or a family vehicle. Musk said Tesla's entire lineup will be almost entirely autonomous. Emphasis there on the word almost."In fact, long term, the only manually driven car will be the new Tesla Roadster."–Tesla CEO Elon MuskJust to clarify, Musk did not say the Roadster launch is imminent, nor did he say the Roadster would never be autonomous. "We may be able to debut that in a month or so," he said. "It requires a lot of testing and validation before we can actually have a demo and not have something go wrong with the demo." Apparently, nine years still isn't enough time for "testing and validation."When (or if) a production-ready Roadster is revealed, Musk said it "might be one of the most spectacular demos ever." If those words excited Tesla fans who are eager to put money down on a Roadster, the words that came after made it clear the Roadster is not a top priority that will add much to Tesla's bottom line. "I don't think it moves the needle massively from a revenue standpoint, but it is very cool."What about replacements for the Model X and Model S? For now, at least, Musk has pretty much nothing to say. But, if he sticks to his word about the new Roadster being the "only manually driven car," don't expect anything to show up anytime soon. Slow Ramp Up For Cybercab And Semi Tom Murphy / CarBuzz / Valnet While resurrecting the Roadster might be a pet project, Musk is focused on autonomy, noting that FSD (Supervised) "is getting extremely good," and that the Cybercab is expected to replace the existing Model Y fleet and will become Tesla's largest-volume vehicle. But he also said this will take time."You should expect that initial production of Cybercab and Semi will be very slow, but then ramping up and going kind of exponential towards the end of the year, and certainly next year," he said."And in fact, we'll be ramping up production of all vehicles in all factories to the best of our ability through the balance of this year."Tesla closed the first quarter of 2026 with $477 million of net income, an operating margin of 4.2%, $1.4 billion of free cash flow, and $3.9 billion of operating cash flow, with automotive revenues totaling $16.2 billion. Worldwide, the automaker reported producing 408,386 vehicles in the first quarter (almost entirely Models 3 and Y) and delivering 358,023.Considering the decline Tesla faced in 2025, the numbers aren't bad. Now, with the Roadster still lacking a definitive debut date and no clear future for cars people can actually drive, it will be interesting to see how the rest of 2026 shakes out for Musk's car company.