Ten years ago, it was rare to see a Tesla on the road. The Model S, despite being the world's best-selling EV at the time, sold just over 50,000 units worldwide, making it rarer to see on the road than the exceedingly rare Porsche Macan.In the following years, Tesla rocketed to the top of the sales charts, cementing its Model Y as the best-selling vehicle of 2023.Now, Tesla's once dominant empire has shriveled to a shell of its former self. Though the EV company once commanded a whopping 80 percent of the US EV market, its market share fell to 38 percent in August, well below the 40 percent it held in October 2017, according to Reuters.2017 is a significant milestone for the company, marking the year Tesla began struggling to push its first mass-produced vehicle out the door, the Model 3. Between October and December of 2017, the company only managed to ship 29,000 vehicles total. In other words, Tesla has completely destroyed its hard-won lead in the EV market.One of the issues leading to the market decline — though certainly not the only one — is Tesla's hard pivot away from EVs toward a controversial blend of humanoid robots, robotaxis, and even AI, at the expense of mass market vehicles, experts argue."I know they're positioning themselves as a robotics, AI company," Stephanie Streaty, Cox Automotive's director of industry insight, told Reuters. "But when you're a car company, when you don't have new products, your share will start to decline."It certainly doesn't help that those new ventures are struggling to get off the ground.Robotaxi has been a complete disaster, landing CEO Elon Musk a hefty lawsuit from investors. Just hours after the company's proprietary Robotaxi app opened to the public in Austin and San Francisco earlier this week, users were surprised to find their access unceremoniously revoked.Given the Robotaxi's performance so far, that might be for the best — riders relying on Tesla cabs have reported experiences both terrifying and downright bizarre. The company has also had to install a human safety monitor in each vehicle, in a way defeating the purpose of an autonomous taxi.The company's robotics division is also in a rut. Musk fanboys got their first glimpse of Telsa's Optimus 2.5 robot earlier this week, which was described as a disappointing and sluggish stopgap offered in place of the long-awaited "next gen" 3.0 unit.Tesla's slumping sales figures come after its executive board announced an unprecedented pay package for Musk, worth some $1 trillion in stock options. That's predicated on his ability to grow Tesla into an $8.5 trillion dollar company, some eight times its current valuation.If the current state of the company is any indication, that seems like a long shot. Still, it's a stunning commitment to the man whose political antics have done irreparable damage to the brand that was once synonymous with electric vehicles.More on Tesla: Leaked DMs Show Elon Musk Blatantly Lying About Self-Driving SafetyThe post Tesla's Market Share Has Fallen So Badly That It's Back to 2017 Levels appeared first on Futurism.