If there's one thing Elon Musk understands, it's the value of showmanship.
From setting audacious goals to making spectacular business predictions to launching a sports car into space, Musk's charisma has been one of his biggest assets. It's a big reason he's been able to lead two of his businesses to trillion-plus-dollar market valuations.
But yesterday's Tesla (TSLA -5.92%) Cybercab launch in Austin was, by all accounts, devoid of showmanship. It was invitation-only. There was no livestream. There was no press release about it on Tesla's website. Even Musk himself didn't bother to attend (although he did post prerecorded videos about the Cybercab on X).
It's almost as though he had an inkling of what was in store.
Here's how a much-anticipated product launch turned into a stock downturn, a federal probe, and an uncertain future for Tesla shareholders in less than 24 hours.
Image source: The Motley Fool
The event turned a Tesla stock rally into a routThe Cybercab event in Austin was supposed to show off an updated version of its robotaxi, a gold-toned two-seater with butterfly doors and no steering wheel or pedals.
Investors and Tesla fans were clearly expecting big things. Shares were up 5.4% on Thursday in anticipation of the launch, while millions of fans were reportedly waiting on X for a livestream that never materialized.
Tesla analysts certainly weren't impressed. Analysts from Wells Fargo published a note saying the event was underwhelming and that the Austin robotaxi service faced "early execution issues." Meanwhile, RBC Capital Markets analysts released their own note complaining about "limited new incremental disclosure" about unclear details of the upgraded Cybercab, including "key outstanding questions around pricing, production cadence, and regulatory approvals."
But the worst was yet to come.
NHTSA opens an audit into the CybercabAdding to the newly launched vehicle's problems, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced this morning that it was opening an "enforcement action" called an Audit Query (AQ) into Tesla's Cybercab self-certification.
Basically, for the Cybercab to begin commercial operations, which have now begun in a "geofenced" area of Austin, Tesla needed to certify to NHTSA that the vehicles complied with all Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS). Self-certification is the standard process for U.S. automakers.
However, the FMVSS – which wasn't created for autonomous vehicles – require cars to have safety features like brake pedals and rearview mirrors that aren't present in the Cybercab.
Image source: Tesla.
In its investigation summary, NHTSA noted:
"Tesla notified the Agency that it certified those Cybercab vehicles as compliant with all applicable [FMVSS] ... The vehicles lack permanently attached, conventional manual controls, such as a brake pedal, gas pedal, steering wheel, and mirrors. NHTSA is opening this AQ to examine the process and technical data on which Tesla relied when certifying the Cybercab and related issues. Among other things, NHTSA will consider the extent to which Tesla's certification depended on determinations that certain FMVSS are inapplicable to the Cybercab."The Cybercab's regulatory woes are reminiscent of what happened to Amazon's(AMZN -0.15%) self-driving subsidiary Zoox, which received its own NHTSA AQ in 2023 after self-certifying its own robotaxi for testing.
The investigation upended Zoox's path to commercialization. It didn't receive an exemption allowing it to charge customers for rides until this July: more than three years later.
Investors have already waited almost two years since the Cybercab's unveiling. They may not be willing to wait three more years for commercial operations to begin.
Now, Tesla's AQ won't necessarily take as long as Zoox's, but at this point, there's no way to tell when we might see full Cybercab service begin in Austin, let alone nationwide.
Given all this, it's unsurprising that shares plunged 6% today, finishing slightly below Wednesday's close. All told, the event was a slight net negative for Tesla's stock, which is down 21.4% so far this year.
Premium Feature
Moneyball Superscore
65/100
Today's Change
(
-5.92
%) $
-22.29
Current Price
$
354.08
What Tesla investors should watch out forDespite Tesla's big share price moves yesterday and today, the business remains pretty much the same as it was on Wednesday. It's an electric-vehicle company planning to launch a robotaxi service and a line of humanoid robots. But right now, those are still only plans. And no amount of showmanship can bring those plans to fruition.
Tesla investors should take this incident as a reminder of how much the stock can move based on headlines and hype. They should look past all that to the underlying business when deciding whether to buy or sell.
At an invite-only event in downtown Austin on Thursday, Tesla (TSLA -5.92%) put the Cybercab into service. The two-seat robotaxi has no steering wheel and no pedals. And riders in the city can now hail one through the company's Robotaxi app, joining the driverless Model Ys that have carried paying passengers there since June 2025.
Shares rose 5.7% on Thursday ahead of the event, closing at about $376.
CEO Elon Musk spent the run-up teasing the launch, pinning a post on X that read "A storm of Cybercabs." The storm, for now, is modest: Texas has authorized 45 Cybercabs for driverless operation statewide.
Six weeks before Thursday's launch, though, Tesla itself removed the Cybercab from the list of products it expects to reach volume production in 2026. The event settled where riders can find a Cybercab. It didn't settle when Tesla can build them at a rate that matters.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
A launch, not a rampTesla first showed the Cybercab as a concept in October 2024, a two-seater with butterfly doors and no driver controls. For months, the company tested versions of the vehicle with human drivers and traditional controls in several U.S. markets. What arrived Thursday is the production version. Tesla began producing the vehicle earlier this year, according to its latest quarterly filing.
Sure, the event itself was small, with five winners selected at random through a Robotaxi rider sweepstakes. But the deployment behind it is commercial. A paying customer in Austin can now hail a vehicle that was a concept on a stage almost two years ago.
What Tesla didn't attach to the launch was a production rate or a new volume timeline.
Tesla pulled the volume promise in JulyTesla's first-quarter update told investors that "Cybercab, Tesla Semi and Megapack 3 are on schedule for volume production starting in 2026." The second-quarter update, published July 22, no longer makes that promise. The Semi and Megapack 3 are still slated to start production this year, though the promise is now production, not volume production. The Cybercab is out of the sentence altogether. And the update stopped promising volume production of the Optimus robot, too.
Tesla didn't leave the reason to guesswork. The July letter calls battery pack capacity expansion "the main limiting factor to near-term vehicle production volume increase." And it says the company is increasing output of its 4680 battery cells to support production ramps of the Cybercab, the Tesla Semi, and the Model Y.
Notably, the factory itself isn't the constraint.
Tesla's installed-capacity table shows the Cybercab line at Gigafactory Texas is built to make more than 125,000 vehicles a year and is already producing. The 45 Cybercabs registered in Texas so far are a tiny fraction of that.
I think the letter matters more than the launch, because it names the thing that has to change before the Cybercab can become a meaningful business.
What turns 45 cars into revenue?Tesla has already told investors where this is supposed to go. In the first-quarter update, the company said it expects the Cybercab "will begin to replace the existing Model Y fleet and will be the largest volume vehicle in the fleet over time."
That ambition sits a long way from 45 vehicles. And the path to it runs through the battery constraint Tesla named in July.
Premium Feature
Moneyball Superscore
65/100
Today's Change
(
-5.92
%) $
-22.29
Current Price
$
354.08
The spending to get there is well underway, however. Tesla raised its 2026 capital-spending plan to more than $25 billion, nearly triple its recent annual levels. Second-quarter capital expenditures were more than double the year-ago figure, and the quarter's free cash flow was negative.
Put another way, the spending is accelerating ahead of the revenue it's meant to produce -- and that revenue still waits on batteries.
The order of events matters because of what the stock costs. Tesla carries a forward price-to-earnings ratio of about 155, based on what the company is expected to earn next year -- a price that arguably assumes the storm of Cybercabs arrives without much delay.
Ultimately, Thursday's event did what a launch can do. It proved the product, and it put paying riders in the seats. What it couldn't do is move the constraint Tesla named in July.
For now, the pace of the Cybercab business likely rests on battery output. That is the number I'd watch.
Tesla (TSLA - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $354.08, moving -5.92% from the previous trading session. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.38%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.51%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.29%.
The stock of electric car maker has risen by 17.79% in the past month, leading the Auto-Tires-Trucks sector's gain of 9.62% and the S&P 500's gain of 2.08%.
The investment community will be closely monitoring the performance of Tesla in its forthcoming earnings report. The company's upcoming EPS is projected at $0.47, signifying a 6.00% drop compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $27.96 billion, down 0.5% from the prior-year quarter.
For the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $1.79 per share and a revenue of $105.94 billion, representing changes of +7.83% and +11.71%, respectively, from the prior year.
Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Tesla should also be noted by investors. Such recent modifications usually signify the changing landscape of near-term business trends. Therefore, positive revisions in estimates convey analysts' confidence in the business performance and profit potential.
Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-term stock moves. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.
The Zacks Rank system, running from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), holds an admirable track record of superior performance, independently audited, with #1 stocks contributing an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, there's been a 1.72% fall in the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. Currently, Tesla is carrying a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).
In the context of valuation, Tesla is at present trading with a Forward P/E ratio of 210.04. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry average Forward P/E of 18.31.
Investors should also note that TSLA has a PEG ratio of 9.3 right now. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Automotive - Domestic industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.15 as trading concluded yesterday.
The Automotive - Domestic industry is part of the Auto-Tires-Trucks sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 45, which puts it in the top 19% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Don't forget to use Zacks.com to keep track of all these stock-moving metrics, and others, in the upcoming trading sessions.
Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) bear Gordon Johnson authored a new analyst note addressing the company’s Cybercab event on Thursday, arguing that investors should be disappointed. Here’s why.
GLJ Research analyst Gordon L. Johnson maintained a Sell rating on Tesla stock with a price target of $24.86. The Cybercab Event left investors with many unanswered questions, Johnson said in a new investor note.
"A car showed up. A business didn’t," Johnson said.
The analyst said the vehicle going into service in Austin is "not nothing," but questions about how many vehicles, prices and under whose rules are still unanswered.
"Attendees, a curated group of Tesla-friendly creators/cultists with instructions that plus-ones could not themselves be creators, took rides in a two-seater with no steering wheel and no pedals. Then they posted about it. That was the event."
Known for his bearish take on Tesla, Johnson does give credit to how far the Cybercab has come in twenty-three months, going from being a prop on a soundstage to a production vehicle taking people around a small geofenced area in Texas.
"But the stock is not priced for a car. It is priced for a network,” Johnson said, citing how there weren’t any new details on Tesla’s network.
"Sell the news,” he added.
The analyst said Tesla shares fell Friday after the event, continuing a tradition of the stock trading lower after flagship events dating back to “Battery Day” in September 2020.
"Across the prior ten, the average return is -3.2% the next day, -5.2% over the following week, and -3.2% over the month. Eight of ten were lower a week later."
Johnson sees Tesla stock falling even lower than that post-event average with a 12-month price target of $24.86. The analyst’s target is based on a 10x price-to-earnings multiple applied to GAAP-estimated EPS of $2.49.
This price target would represent a 93% decline from current levels, with shares already down 29% from all-time highs set in December and 19% year-to-date in 2026.
Tesla Stock Price ActionTesla stock is down 6% to $353.71 on Friday versus a 52-week trading range of $297.38 to $498.82.
Read Next
Photo by Josiah True via Shutterstock
Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
The U.S. economy exceeded job expectations in August, adding 162,000 jobs, pushing Treasury yields higher and stocks lower as traders anticipate a Fed rate hike. Tesla (TSLA) faces a federal probe into its Cybercab self-certification process.
By You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email.
MKBHD made a famous bet with Tesla. He's confident he'll win. Tesla/Getty Images/Business Insider Making bets about Tesla's launches can get pretty hairy — but Marques Brownlee is confident.
Brownlee, the hugely popular tech content creator, better known as MKBHD, said in 2024 that he would shave his head on camera if Tesla sold its steering-wheel-and-side-mirror-free Cybercab to regular buyers for $30,000 before the end of 2026.
"My hair is safe, for now," he said during an 11-minute YouTube video, posted on Thursday. "And honestly, I feel pretty good about it staying good for the rest of the year."
The declaration comes after Tesla took a meaningful step toward that goal on Thursday: It added the two-seat Cybercab to its public robotaxi service in Austin.
For Brownlee, that is a far cry from Tesla's initial promise of putting that vehicle in consumers' driveways by New Year's Eve. In the YouTube post, he said Tesla would need to solve full self-driving, clear regulatory hurdles around selling a car without conventional hardware, and hit its aggressive price target — all within a few months.
Those are the same challenges sitting at the center of Tesla's bigger pitch to investors. In recent years, the company has de-emphasized the importance of its traditional car sales model as it turns toward its AI and robotics business. Robotaxis and autonomy, including the success of the Cybercab, are at the core of that pivot.
CEO Elon Musk is expressing optimism, too. He said on Friday that he believes MKBHD will have to go bald soon:
I guess he really wants to shave his head 🤷♂️
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2026 In the YouTube video, Brownlee —who has stepped up criticism of the EV company, especially after he publicly canceled his long-awaited Roadster reservation — said he still likes the Cybercab idea. He is just skeptical of Tesla's timing.
And he is willing to put other Tesla-believers' hair on the line, too: If he loses, he said he will shave his head and donate money to cancer research. If they lose, they shave theirs at the end of 2026.
"Three months to prove me wrong," he said.
And, for those who are curious to see what Brownlee might look like bald, the internet is swirling with plenty of AI slop videos and apps to fill in your imagination gaps:
Representatives for Brownlee and Tesla didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
Read next
Ben Shimkus You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email.
Ben Shimkus is a reporter for the Business News desk. He writes about cars, transportation, retail, and jobs. Ben's reporting has appeared in Rolling Stone, The Verge, Automotive News, USA Today, AutoBody News, LGBTQ Nation, TopSpeed, and Out Magazine. He's also held staff writing positions at The U.S. Sun and the Daily Mail. He graduated from NYU with a Master's in journalism in 2024. Email Ben at [email protected] or message him privately on Signal at bshimkus.41.
At the end of the day, Tesla's (TSLA -6.07%) long-awaited and much-hyped debut of its Cybercab probably didn't have the reception that management had hoped for.
Tesla rolled out its long-awaited fully autonomous cab on Thursday at an invitation-only event in Austin. The event, which the company and CEO Elon Musk promoted on social media throughout the day, introduced a fleet of gold-colored two-door Cybercabs that feature distinctive butterfly doors and most decidedly do not include a steering wheel or brake pedal.
"The future is here now. And in the future, there will be millions of Cybercabs everywhere," the company's Cybercab lead, Eric Earley, said during the presentation that was posted on YouTube. Musk did not appear at the event.
Tesla stock rose throughout the day, up 7% at market close, as Thursday’s event drew near. But the rollout failed to impress, and shares began falling again in premarket trading on Friday.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
A government auditAnd then on Friday morning, government regulators said they are opening an investigation into Tesla to determine how the company self-certified that its Cybercab meets federal safety standards.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says Tesla told it the vehicles were compliant with federal safety standards and that Tesla planned to expand commercial deployment from Austin to other locations.
"The vehicles lack permanently attached, conventional manual controls, such as a brake pedal, gas pedal, steering wheel, and mirrors," the agency said. "NHTSA is opening this AQ (audit query) to examine the process and technical data on which Tesla relied when certifying the Cybercab and related issues. Among other things, NHTSA will consider the extent to which Tesla's certification depended on determinations that certain (federal motor vehicle safety standards) are inapplicable to the Cybercab."
Tesla stock is down 6% in trading on Friday, meaning the company has essentially given back all the gains it earned in the hours leading up to the much-hyped rollout.
Premium Feature
Moneyball Superscore
65/100
Today's Change
(
-6.07
%) $
-22.83
Current Price
$
353.53
Does this mean the Cybercab is a dud?Not really. Just as it would be wrong to make sweeping judgments in the hours before the Cybercab rollout, it would be short-sighted to make them a few hours after the livestream ended. But it's clear that the rollout was extremely short on details and failed to live up to the hype.
Tesla says that Cybercabs will be available starting at 5 p.m. CT on Friday, but only in a limited section of Austin for part of the day. Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla's head of artificial intelligence, said that it will be "next month or so" before the driverless vehicles are available at all times of the day.
That's a much different reality than Musk's optimistic posts on social media in the hours before the event, when he promised "A Storm of Cybercabs."
Morgan Stanley analysts predicted before the event that if investors found it underwhelming, the stock's reaction would be muted, and that's what appears to be happening. Wells Fargo analyst Colin Langan reiterated his "Sell" rating and $130 price target on Friday, implying a 63% downside for Tesla stock. GLJ Research analyst Gordon Johnson also has a "Sell" rating with an extremely bearish $24.86 price target, noting that Tesla failed to provide a rollout target, pricing, or consumer order option. He also noted that Musk did not appear at the event.
What does this mean for Tesla?In the end, the core thesis for Tesla and the Cybercab is unchanged. Tesla still needs to ramp up production, get approval to use unsupervised Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology on a widespread basis, and live up to the lofty expectations Musk has placed on autonomous driving for a decade.
In the meantime, Tesla will be a volatile stock, but the share price won't reflect Musk's ambitions until Tesla begins to live up to its CEO's hype.
Tesla’s private Cybercab event has come and gone, and it was very different from the large, loud, livestreamed events the company usually puts on — an odd choice for the launch of a product CEO Elon Musk has spent years building toward.
In fact, it doesn’t even appear that Musk spoke at the event, the keynote of which, by all accounts, only lasted around 15 minutes.
The promise of the Cybercab is massive: a fully autonomous vehicle that uses only cameras and AI to drive itself, all for much less than a Waymo. But Tesla scattered a lot of the details. Some are in PDFs the company released on Thursday, as well as in updated terms of service in its “Robotaxi” app. The rest were left for a select few die-hard fans to disseminate online.
The company now has to prove that these vehicles are safe — to the public, to local governments, and to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which has already opened an investigation into Tesla’s Cybercab rollout.
In the meantime, here are some of the most interesting new details that caught our attention:
No Cybercab for kiddos One of the more interesting details in the Cybercab fine print is that Tesla does not allow minors under the age of 13 to ride in the vehicle “at this time.”
Minors between the ages of 8 and 17 are allowed to ride in Tesla’s “Robotaxi” Model Y SUVs, and Tesla does have guidelines on how to use child seats in both vehicles.
Curiously, the Cybercab does not have the standard LATCH anchors for child seats. Instead, they can only be attached using the seat belt. Tesla executives, including Musk, have talked a lot about how much they focus on taking out unnecessary parts to cut down on costs, though I’ll admit I wasn’t expecting the company to ditch child seat anchors — especially given Musk’s obsession with making more babies.
All children under 18 must be accompanied by an adult in both vehicles, according to Tesla. But something is making Tesla hesitate on allowing young children in the Cybercab for now.
What happens in a crash? While the goal of an autonomous vehicle is to avoid crashing, even the most capable ones on the road today do wind up in collisions.
Here’s what happens when the Cybercab gets in a crash: The airbags will inflate, the doors will unlock, the hazard warning lights and interior lights will turn on, the high voltage battery is disabled, the windows go to the “vent” position, the Cybercab will apply the brakes to come to a stop and park, and the infotainment system will start up a two-way connection with Tesla’s rider support team.
Unlocking the doors is notable because Tesla has come under fire for its reliance on electronic door latches, both in its home market of the United States and in its largest market, China. Just last month, Tesla agreed to recall 3 million cars in China, alongside a number of other automakers, as a result of an investigation into electronic door latches that could trap people following a crash.
Manual door releases Speaking of doors, another recent criticism of Tesla is that its interior manual door releases are too hard to find in an emergency. These are necessary because the electronic door latches are the main method of getting in and out of the company’s vehicles, activated either by pushing a button or using a smartphone.
The Cybercab uses electronic door latches, which allow the doors to open automatically at the start or end of a ride. There is also a small button on the exterior of the car that riders can use to open the doors. But inside, the manual release is thankfully in a very obvious spot on the armrest of each door.
Brake-by-wire Tesla is using a brake-by-wire system in the Cybercab, again largely (it seems) for the purposes of cutting costs. Instead of using a hydraulic system that pumps fluid through lines to control brake pressure, Tesla has electronic actuators controlling the brake calipers.
“Having electric brakes avoids the complexity of a hydraulic system: no need to rout [sic] plumbing all around the car,” Musk wrote in a post.
The company was already the first major automaker to use steer-by-wire on its Cybertruck, severing the physical connection between the steering wheel and the front wheels.
A little fresh air For some reason, the windows of the Cybercab “cannot be fully opened at this time.” Tesla doesn’t explain why in the documentation it released this week.
USB-C power According to influencer Jeremy Judkins, the USB-C outlets in the Cybercab put out 90W of power — roughly four times more than you’d typically find inside a car.
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.
Sean O’Kane is a reporter who has spent a decade covering the rapidly-evolving business and technology of the transportation industry, including Tesla and the many startups chasing Elon Musk. Most recently, he was a reporter at Bloomberg News where he helped break stories about some of the most notorious EV SPAC flops. He previously worked at The Verge, where he also covered consumer technology, hosted many short- and long-form videos, performed product and editorial photography, and once nearly passed out in a Red Bull Air Race plane.
You can contact or verify outreach from Sean by emailing [email protected] or via encrypted message at okane.01 on Signal.
Living in Northern California, I've seen the new Tesla Cybercabs driving around, particularly when I've been in Palo Alto (Tesla's NorCal HQ).
The futuristic cars apparently have no steering wheel and no pedals - something I didn't personally notice as I watched them driving around — but by now we're starting to get used to the idea of driverless cars between the Waymos and, before they ended the program, self-driving Chevy Bolt EV's operated by Cruise. The others, with visible sensors and cameras hanging off every corner of the vehicles, look like prototypes. The sleek Cybercab, by contrast, looks like the future is now. It's a gamechanger.
In the short term, the market is a voting machine, and most options trades are, by their nature, short-term votes. Today's vote is about whether a visible, wheel-less rollout can reprice Tesla from "EV maker with a software story" back toward a company that's changing the world. Shares closed near $376 after a 5.4% jump on launch day, well below the 52-week high near $499. So how to play it using options?
The trade:
Buy TSLA Dec 390 calls at $32.50Sell the Oct 23 weekly 425 calls at $9.50, and the Oct 23 weekly 330 puts at $7.30Net debit: $15.70.Over the past year, the three strongest-performing technical indicators for Tesla, in order, have been MACD, DMI, and RSI. All three are bullish now, which favors buying a long call, such as the 50 delta (which traders might write "50^") December 390s. The issue is that those cost $32.40/contract, roughly 8.6% of the current stock price.
To be profitable at expiration, the stock needs to rise above the $390 call strike by at least the premium paid. To offset this decay (aka "theta"), I'm electing to sell the nearer-dated 425/330 strangle, which collects $16.80. Theta works for the trade first: the Oct 23 strangle should decay faster than the longer-dated 390 call.
If Tesla chops between roughly 330 and 425 into that Friday, the short options expire and the remaining December call is carried at a lower basis. Depending on the stock price at that time, I may roll my short options up (or down) in price and further out in time.
Of course, the stock's price path still matters. A move higher toward 390–410 is the base case: shorts expire, the long call retains time value, and you can reset or roll the position. A sharp spike through 425 before Oct 23 is a great outcome, but it would force a decision on the short call—buy it back, roll up and out, or let assignment convert the trade. In any case, this will be profitable to the upside because we own the December calls. A break under 330, by contrast, puts the short put in play; that is not ideal, but it is the defined risk of financing with a put. Selling a put incurs the risk of buying the stock at the put strike, but at least that represents a discount to the prevailing stock price.
Don't forget that in that instance one would still own the longer-dated December calls, adding an upside kicker to the long position if the stock rebounds, assuming one decided to continue to hold them. Selling puts will tie up a lot of cash in your account.
The launch is limited and with a small unsupervised fleet. Waymo already has scale and trip volume Tesla has not yet matched. Cybercab is a two-seater with no cargo, and unit economics improve only if utilization and regulatory permission both expand fast, but I challenge anyone to name a company that has proven it can deliver superb EVs at scale better than Tesla.
The commercial launch immediately became a test of whether Tesla's control-free vehicle satisfies existing safety standards. Summary
Cybercab reached paying customers before its regulatory pathway stopped attracting questions.
Tesla TSLA, the electric-vehicle and autonomous-driving heavyweight, tumbled over 4.6% to $358.88 in Friday premarket trading as federal regulators turned their spotlight on Cybercab. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an audit covering roughly 1,000 vehicles, demanding evidence that Tesla's certification process meets federal safety standards. The timing could not be tighter: Cybercab entered limited commercial service in Austin on Thursday.
This is no ordinary car. Cybercab has no permanently installed steering wheel, brake pedal, accelerator or conventional mirrors. Tesla's second-quarter investor update highlighted public-road engineering tests and employee rides, but the commercial rollout has now moved the regulatory stakes higher. Texas records showed just 45 Cybercabs inside Tesla's 420-vehicle registered autonomous fleet Friday morning.
The valuation picture adds another pressure point. At $358.88, Tesla trades 7.53% above its $333.76 GF Value™, meaning investors are still paying a premium even after the premarket drop. The 45 Cybercabs represent only 10.7% of Tesla's Texas autonomous fleet, but this fight is not about 45 vehicles. It is about whether Tesla can scale Cybercab without exemptions, hardware changes or a costly rollout delay. Tesla has launched the machine. Regulators may now decide how fast it can grow.
Disclosures I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and have no plans to buy any new positions in the stocks mentioned within the next 72 hours.
As Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) stock fell by more than 7% over the past 24 hours following an underwhelming Cybercab event on September 3, Gordon Johnson, a Wall Street analyst at GLJ Research, expects a crash to $24 over the next 12 months.
Johnson reiterated a ‘Sell’ rating for Tesla stock, according to a note sent to clients on September 4. Additionally, he set the firm’s 12-month price target at $24.86.
With TSLA trading at approximately $351.95, GLJ Research signals a potential 92.94% downside over the next 12 months. GLJ Research reaffirmed a negative sentiment for Tesla following a Cybercab launch that drastically underperformed market expectations.
Johnson argued that this event has failed to provide critical deployment metrics, such as forward pricing, an order mechanism, or a defined timeline, and has restricted paid rides to an extremely limited geofence in Austin.
Furthermore, the firm emphasizes that Tesla’s premium valuation demands evidence of a functional, scalable autonomous network rather than a standalone vehicle. Since the company provided no new progress on its underlying network thesis, the firm views the Cybercab launch as a classic “sell-the-news” catalyst.
Wall Street on Tesla stock In addition to GLJ Research, Colin Langan, a Wall Street analyst at Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC), maintained a ‘Sell’ rating for Tesla stock on Friday. Langan set the bank’s 12-month price target for TSLA at $130, suggesting a possible 63% selloff.
As such, 28 analysts surveyed by TipRanks over the past three months have set an average rating of ‘Moderate Buy’ and a 12-month target of $377.08, representing a likely 7.18% uptick.
TSLA stock 12-month forecast. Source: TipRanks TSLA price performance Year-to-date (YTD), TSLA’s price has fallen by 19.66%, thus lowering the company’s market capitalization to $1.5 trillion at the time of publication.
Tesla’s stock YTD chart. Source: Finbold If the company’s two-seat autonomous vehicle gains traction over the coming months, TSLA stock may get better ratings from Wells Fargo and GLJ Research.
Featured image via Shutterstock
Best Crypto Exchange for Intermediate Traders and Investors
Invest in cryptocurrencies and 3,000+ other assets including stocks and precious metals.
0% commission on stocks - buy in bulk or just a fraction from as little as $10. Other fees apply. For more information, visit etoro.com/trading/fees.
Copy top-performing traders in real time, automatically.
eToro USA is registered with FINRA for securities trading.
30+ million Users worldwide
eToro is a multi-asset investment platform. The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk. Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment and you should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong. Take 2 mins to learn more.
Join Finbold's newsroom, become a Sales Executive today! Apply now to join Finbold as a crypto/finance news writer!
Tesla shares declined 6% Friday after the company's long-awaited Cybercab update failed to dazzle investors. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also initiated an "audit query" to determine whether the Cybercab, a "purpose-built robotaxi" complies with U.S. safety standards.
By You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email.
Shortly after Tesla launched its Cybercabs to customers on Thursday, NHTSA announced an investigation. Tesla Tesla's Cybercab is live in Austin. Now, regulators in Washington are asking to check the EV-maker's homework.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, opened an audit inquiry late Thursday into Tesla's Cybercab certification.
The move came hours after Tesla's commercial deployment of a small number of Cybercabs in Austin, which joined its robotaxi network. Texas DMV records list 45 Cybercabs registered to Tesla. The vehicle has yet to be made available to purchase to consumers.
"NHTSA fully supports the safe development and deployment of automated vehicles," Jonathan Morrison, the agency's administrator, wrote in a statement sent to Business Insider. "But as the federal regulator, we need to ensure that all of our laws are followed."
NHTSA's announcement doesn't order Tesla to halt Cybercab deployments — the agency hasn't made any comment on the vehicle's safety or compliance. Instead, NHTSA will examine Tesla's technical data and the processes behind the automaker's self-certification.
Automakers typically certify their own vehicles' compliance with federal rules. Tesla told NHTSA that the Cybercab complies with applicable federal safety standards.
The certification could pose thorny questions for Tesla, given today's vehicle rules. The Cybercab doesn't have conventional human controls — such as a steering wheel, pedals, or side mirrors — that are required by current federal safety standards.
NHTSA will examine whether Tesla was correct in determining that some of those requirements do not apply to its automated vehicle.
Tesla is not the first company to confront the full-autonomy regulatory challenge. In July, NHTSA gave Amazon-owned Zoox a temporary exemption to deploy its own steering-wheel-free robotaxis commercially.
Tesla is taking a different route: It certified that the Cybercab meets all applicable federal rules, even as NHTSA is still working to update standards, including one governing brake pedals, for driverless vehicles.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Read next
Ben Shimkus You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email.
Ben Shimkus is a reporter for the Business News desk. He writes about cars, transportation, retail, and jobs. Ben's reporting has appeared in Rolling Stone, The Verge, Automotive News, USA Today, AutoBody News, LGBTQ Nation, TopSpeed, and Out Magazine. He's also held staff writing positions at The U.S. Sun and the Daily Mail. He graduated from NYU with a Master's in journalism in 2024. Email Ben at [email protected] or message him privately on Signal at bshimkus.41.
Elon Musk has a history of stretching the horizon until it looks close enough to grab. In late August, he offered his "best guess" that Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX -0.85%) could generate roughly $3.5 trillion in revenue by 2033.
That prediction was posted casually on social media, not offered as formal company guidance. However, as is frequently the case when Musk communicates, his words still landed with force. This forecast invites some simple questions:
What does SpaceX actually sell today? How big a leap is Musk trying to sell? Why should investors treat a timeline this aggressive as anything more than marketing? Let's dig into SpaceX's current state and explore Musk's history using timelines. Spoiler alert: History suggests he's nowhere near correct with this prediction.
Elon Musk. Image Source: The White House.
How big is SpaceX? Despite its name, SpaceX is not primarily a launch business at this point. The company also has a connectivity segment built around Starlink's broadband service as well as an artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure division.
Through the first six months of 2026, SpaceX generated $12.5 billion in total revenue -- an increase of 54% year over year. Starlink was the largest contributor, comprising 60% of sales. The space segment only generated about $1.6 billion in revenue during the first half of the year. Not only was that virtually flat year over year, but accelerating research and development costs for the Starship program have resulted in widening operating losses for the segment.
AI infrastructure encompasses the part of the company that leases capacity and related services to hyperscalers. This division consolidates xAI (the maker of Grok), X (formerly Twitter), and the software coding platform Cursor. Although AI is SpaceX's fastest-growing business, the company spent $23.6 billion in capital expenditures on that segment alone during the first half of the year. In other words, AI is absorbing enormous capital spending for only $3.4 billion of revenue.
Today's Change
(
-0.85
%) $
-1.28
Current Price
$
148.46
Putting Musk's $3.5 trillion claim into perspective Amazon and Walmart are the world's two largest companies as measured by annual revenue. The two of them together recorded about $1.47 trillion of sales over the last year. Musk's 2033 forecast is nearly 2.4 times that sum. It is also roughly 140 times SpaceX's current revenue run rate.
The consensus estimate of Wall Street analysts covering SpaceX is for total revenue of $44.6 billion for the company in 2026. If the company delivers as they expect this year, it would still need to grow at an 86% compound annual growth rate over the next seven years to reach Musk's $3.5 trillion projection. That aggressive outlook assumes no headwinds from regulations, emerging competition, or capital constraints.
Even the most blue-sky models from Wall Street analysts don't see the company reaching comparable revenue numbers until closer to 2040, and those predictions are tied to the following assumptions:
Thousands of Starship launches per year. Starlink continues to add subscribers and government contracts at an accelerating pace, and enters the telecommunications industry -- possibly releasing its own mobile device. Orbital data centers become a real market. Even if all these developments succeed on optimistic schedules, they don't automatically produce a company larger than today's two largest retail giants combined. Smart investors can see that Musk's forecast is not a modest stretch of SpaceX's current trajectory. Rather, it is a bold claim that SpaceX will converge upon several industries at once at a speed no other industrial company has ever sustained.
History is not on Musk's side The reason I have major doubts about Musk's 2033 forecast is not just because space exploration and AI are hard businesses to compete in. It's also because Musk's track record on timelines at Tesla (TSLA -5.99%) has been one of overpromising and underdelivering for nearly a decade.
2016–2017: Full self-driving (FSD) was described as imminent, and a coast-to-coast autonomous drive was promised but never delivered. 2019–2025: Robotaxis were expected "next year," with 1 million robotaxis forecast for 2020. Neither happened. Unsupervised autonomous driving was repeatedly pushed to "next year" or "by year-end." Currently, Tesla operates an extremely limited, geofenced robotaxi service with safety monitors in Austin, Texas. This is far short of the original vision. November 2019-late 2021: Cybertruck was promised to be in production for $39,900 and feature a 500-plus mile range. Instead, volume deliveries began in late 2023 at roughly twice the expected price and for a vehicle with far less range. 2019-2022: The Tesla Semi was unveiled for 2019 production. A handful of pilot trucks didn't appear until late 2022. Recurring missed deadlines: A $25,000 Tesla car, early factory-scale Optimus robots, and solar-roof volume have all followed the same loop: an explicit date and years of slips, followed by another date. Tesla's market value has long been supported by the story that these programs were just around the corner and would transform the company into something much larger than an automaker. In reality, the company's milestones have drastically lagged the narratives that Musk has spun.
I think the same marketing talent and a similar appetite for distant numbers now surround SpaceX. A $3.5 trillion sales figure by 2033 is less of a budget and more of a valuation hyperbole: Keep the horizon far enough away that every quarter of growth and every successful operational stress test can be interpreted as progress toward an almost unimaginable destination.
Musk's history at Tesla suggests that his proposed milestone target for SpaceX is nothing more than a fantasy. The prudent interpretation is that SpaceX is a respectable, fast-growing company aspiring to become a vertically integrated industrial empire spanning space, internet services, and AI development. Based on the evidence of Musk's own track record, however, SpaceX is a far cry from becoming a $3.5 trillion sales machine seven short years from now.
Tesla TSLA stock came under pressure on Friday, a day after the electric vehicle maker officially launched its Cybercab robotaxi in Austin, Texas.
Shares fell about 6.4% in trading, although the stock remained on track for its fourth weekly gain in five weeks.
The launch has drawn mixed reactions from analysts and raised new regulatory questions after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened an inquiry into Tesla’s certification of the driverless vehicle.
Wells Fargo maintained its Underweight rating and $130 price target on Tesla, implying about 63% downside from the stock’s current level.
The bank said the Cybercab launch likely fell short of investor expectations because of limited updates and a lack of surprises.
Tesla added its two-seat Cybercab to its Robotaxi network in Austin, marking the commercial debut of its purpose-built autonomous vehicle.
The gold-colored vehicle has no steering wheel or pedals and is designed to operate without a driver.
Public Cybercab rides are scheduled to begin Friday at 5 p.m. CT in limited areas of Austin.
Tesla has not disclosed how many vehicles will initially be available, while Wells Fargo noted that about 45 Cybercabs were registered in Texas around the launch.
The rollout comes as Tesla seeks to compete with Alphabet’s Waymo, which has established a larger US autonomous-vehicle operation.
GLJ Research also reiterated a Sell rating on Tesla, describing the event as a “sell-the-news” moment, according to TipRanks.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has positioned autonomous driving and robotics as increasingly important to the company’s future.
The Cybercab is central to that strategy, with Tesla having started production in April and Musk previously saying production would grow “exponentially” later this year or next.
The NHTSA said Friday it had opened an Audit Query covering about 1,000 Cybercab vehicles.
The agency is examining how Tesla determined that the vehicle complies with federal safety regulations.
The issue centers on the Cybercab’s lack of conventional manual controls. Existing US vehicle safety standards were largely written around human-driven vehicles and require manual controls.
Michael Brooks, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, said in a Reuters report that, “I don’t think there is a reasonable interpretation that can be made to suggest that the Cybercab can comply with the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.”
Carnegie Mellon University professor and autonomous-vehicle safety expert Philip Koopman said Tesla has historically “tested limits and pushed boundaries on regulations.” He added that he expects Tesla to test those limits with the Cybercab.
The regulatory questions add another challenge as Tesla seeks to expand its robotaxi operations.
The company currently operates a limited paid robotaxi service in Texas and Florida using Model Y vehicles, which retain manual controls required under federal standards and have human backup drivers in some cars.
Bryant Walker Smith, a University of South Carolina law professor specializing in autonomous-driving regulation, questioned whether Tesla’s technology is ready for broad deployment.
He said public information does not indicate that Tesla is “anywhere close” to safely and reliably deploying an automated driving system across the conditions required for a vehicle without conventional controls.
For vehicles that do not comply with federal safety standards, NHTSA provides an exemption process that limits deployment to 2,500 vehicles annually.
Tesla’s engineering chief Lars Moravy has said Cybercab would not be subject to that cap, although he did not provide details.
Tesla’s approach could face further regulatory scrutiny.
Amazon-backed Zoox previously attempted to self-certify a similar driverless vehicle, but withdrew its certification after an NHTSA investigation. Zoox later received a federal exemption for limited commercial deployment.
Meanwhile, investor concerns extend beyond the Cybercab launch itself. Gary Black cautioned Tesla shareholders against conflating enthusiasm for the company with enthusiasm for its stock, saying, “Loving the company doesn’t mean you should love the stock.” He urged investors to conduct their own research rather than rely on management’s promises.
Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options: https://bit.ly/2v9tH6D. Tesla (TSLA) hit the brakes on Friday's trading session following Thursday's Cybercab event and a new probe against it from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Tesla TSLA has started letting customers book rides in its purpose-built Cybercab across limited parts of Austin, Texas, putting the autonomous vehicle into its first public service while regulators examine its design.
The two-seat vehicle operates without a steering wheel, pedals or mirrors. Tesla says it relies on cameras and other sensors to navigate, while the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is reviewing how the vehicle fits within federal safety requirements.
Texas records show 45 Cybercabs among 420 Tesla autonomous vehicles registered in the state. The rollout remains limited, with Tesla also operating Robotaxi services using Model Y vehicles in several U.S. markets.
Tesla's own rider rules bar passengers younger than 13 from Cybercab trips, while those aged 13 to 17 must travel with an adult. The company is also accepting commercial purchase inquiries for Cybercab fleets and individual vehicles.
What it means for the stock: The Austin rollout gives Tesla a live test of its autonomous vehicle strategy, but regulatory scrutiny could affect how quickly Cybercab service expands.
Tesla Inc. (TSLA, Financials) CEO Elon Musk, through his America PAC, is pouring new money into the 2026 midterm elections.The super PAC spent more than $800,00
The steering-wheel-free robotaxi enters limited public service as U.S. regulators examine Tesla's autonomous rollout. Summary
Tesla is opening Cybercab rides to the public in limited parts of Austin
Tesla Inc. (TSLA, Financials) is taking one of its biggest robotaxi bets out of the demo stage at the electric vehicle and autonomous-driving firm.
Tesla is launching Cybercab trips to the public in select areas of Austin, Texas, marking the first time it's using the purpose-built autonomous car in commercial operation.
The Cybercab is a two-seater without a steering wheel or pedals. Tesla has registered 45 of them in Texas, a small but critical initial deployment for a firm that increasingly asks investors to value it on autonomy rather than regular car sales.
That timing elevates the stakes as well. Tesla's Cybercab deployment is under investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which normally assumes conventional controls such as steering wheels and pedals in federal vehicle rules.
Tesla has previously indicated the Cybercab may cost less than $30,000, a price point that could be significant if the business ever sells vehicles to fleet operators or individual owners.
Shares climbed 5.4% on Thursday ahead of the launch event, but fell in after-hours trade as the presentation offered nothing in the way of new facts.
The real test for investors now shifts from the stage to the street. The next catalyst will be the speed of Tesla's expansion of Cybercab availability beyond the initial Austin fleet, and whether authorities will permit the business to scale vehicles without conventional driver controls.
Disclosures I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and have no plans to buy any new positions in the stocks mentioned within the next 72 hours.
Tesla launched the Cybercab without asking a single regulator for permission, and now the federal government wants to know how that was even possible. The answer sits inside a legal gray zone that could decide the future of every driverless…
On Thursday evening, at ACL Live in downtown Austin, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA | TSLA Price Prediction) held an invitation-only launch event for the Cybercab, a passenger vehicle with no steering wheel, no pedals, and no side mirrors. Attendees rode in it first. Public rides opened Friday morning inside a limited zone of Austin. Before those rides began, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a formal audit query into how the car got on the road at all.
Here is the part most drivers do not know: Tesla did not ask a regulator for permission. It declared the Cybercab legal itself. In American vehicle safety law, that is the system. Automakers self-certify that their vehicles meet every Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard, and NHTSA polices that assertion after the fact. Self-certification is standard industry practice. What is unusual is applying it to a car that ships without the physical controls the standards were written around.
What the Government Is Actually Auditing The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said its audit query will “examine the process and technical data on which Tesla relied when certifying the Cybercab and related issues.” The agency also said it will weigh how far Tesla’s self-certification depended on the company’s own determination that certain federal motor vehicle safety standards are inapplicable to a vehicle designed without manual controls. The audit is a fight over the basis of the certification itself, with no connection to any crash, injury, or defect involving the Cybercab.
There was another road Tesla could have taken. TechCrunch notes that Part 555 is the formal federal exemption process for vehicles that do not meet all the standards, and it is the path a company would normally use to put a steering-wheel-free car on public streets. According to 24/7 Wall St., Tesla had not filed an exemption request as of Wednesday, the day before the launch. By self-certifying instead, Tesla is attempting to skip the exemption process entirely. The audit query is the government testing whether it can.
Zoox Precedent Regulators Are Working From NHTSA has run this play before. Zoox, the Amazon-owned robotaxi company, self-certified its own driverless shuttle. NHTSA answered with a special order for information, then an audit query the following year, the same instrument now pointed at Tesla. Zoox eventually received an exemption permitting demonstration only, not commercial service, then filed a Part 555 request for a temporary exemption from eight Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, according to TechCrunch, won final approval, and began charging for rides in Las Vegas weeks later. The process consumed years. It is unclear whether Tesla’s path resolves on anything like that timeline.
One variable could rewrite the whole question. The Department of Transportation has proposed removing manual control requirements for vehicles built to drive themselves. If that rule takes effect, the terrain of the audit shifts under everyone’s feet. Whether it does, and when, is not something to predict.
Context on the broader regulatory backdrop is covered in our companion piece, Tesla Falls 3% as Cybercab Launch Leaves Deployment Questions Unanswered, according to 24/7 Wall St.. Tesla also has at least two other active NHTSA investigations into its self-driving systems, covering at least nine documented crashes including a fatal pedestrian collision, plus scrutiny over allegedly slow crash reporting.
The signal to watch is narrow and specific. NHTSA’s next move is either a request for the underlying certification documents or a determination that Tesla’s inapplicability findings do not hold. Either would tell the market whether self-certification remains a workable route for a car built without a driver’s seat.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Friday opened an investigation into whether 1,000 Tesla Cybercab vehicles were properly certified.
Tesla shares fell more than 6% on Friday.
The auto safety regulator is examining the process and technical data the EV maker relied on to claim compliance with federal motor vehicle safety standards.
Auto-safety regulators opened an investigation into whether 1,000 Tesla Cybercab vehicles were properly certified. ZUMAPRESS.com The probe comes after Tesla on Thursday began commercial deployment of a small number of the two-seater Cybercab in Austin, Texas, and said it planned to gradually expand the service to additional vehicles and locations.
NHTSA said the Cybercab lacks permanently attached conventional manual controls, including a steering wheel, brake pedal, accelerator pedal and mirrors.
The agency said it would examine the basis for Tesla’s certification and related issues, including the extent to which the company determined that certain Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards were not applicable to the vehicle.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The EV maker had 420 autonomous vehicles registered in Texas as of Friday morning, according to state records, including 45 Cybercab vehicles.
NHTSA said the Cybercab lacks permanently attached conventional manual controls, including a steering wheel, brake pedal, accelerator pedal and mirrors. ZUMAPRESS.com In June, the agency proposed to end a government requirement for manual brake pedals in self-driving vehicles, a move that would make it easier to deploy such vehicles on US roads. It has proposed other changes to federal safety standards to allow AVs to avoid needing additional human driver equipment.
Under existing law, fully self-driving vehicles do not need NHTSA approval if they have required human controls, like steering wheels, brake pedals or mirrors.
A drone view shows gold-colored Tesla Cybercabs lined up in a parking lot on Wednesday, August 12, 2026, in San Diego, California. REUTERS NHTSA has authority to grant petitions to allow up to 2,500 vehicles per manufacturer yearly to operate on US roads without required human controls. In July, NHTSA approved a petition for Amazon’s Zoox unit for limited commercial deployment of its novel steering-wheel-free robotaxis, a first for the autonomous ride industry.
Tesla's (TSLA.O) race to deploy Cybercab robotaxis will put regulatory limits to the test as the EV maker begins rides in the sporty, two-seaters that run without a steering wheel, pedals or mirrors.
Just hours after an event in downtown Austin, Texas, to mark the rollout, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it opened an audit of about 1,000 Cybercab vehicles to assess how Tesla determined the cars comply with federal vehicle-safety regulations.
U.S. regulators limit commercial deployment of vehicles that do not adhere to decades-old federal safety standards that were written for human-driven vehicles and require manual controls. But industry experts said regulatory gray areas and Elon Musk's litigious track record could give Tesla a chance to force the Cybercab into broad use anyway.
Amid a frenzy of fans and social media influencers in downtown Austin, Texas, Cybercabs were added to Tesla's robotaxi fleet that now operates its best-selling Model Y SUVs. Tesla said Cybercab rides were open to everyone and executives described pricing plans, without specifically saying whether they were starting to charge.
The golden, butterfly-door Cybercab embodies Musk's strategy of betting the company on self-driving software and robotics. That bet has pushed its stock valuation to $1.4 trillion, more than the top several global automakers combined.
Unlike most other countries, where new vehicle models and technology need regulatory clearance ahead of launch, automakers in the United States can deploy them on the public roads by self-certifying that they meet federal standards.
"I don't think there is a reasonable interpretation that can be made to suggest that the Cybercab can comply with the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards," said Michael Brooks, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, a consumer advocacy group.
While NHTSA is pushing faster than usual to change vehicle-safety standards and separately drafting new rules to accommodate driverless vehicles, its efforts, experts have said, are likely to take longer to kick in than what Musk is promising.
Musk is not known to wait for regulations, though. "Tesla historically has tested limits and pushed boundaries on regulations," said Philip Koopman, a Carnegie Mellon University engineering professor and autonomous-vehicle safety expert. "I fully expect Tesla to test the limits."
Musk could come up with a "creative interpretation" of vehicle regulation, say that Cybercabs comply with federal standards and "flood the market" with them, Koopman said. "That could take NHTSA or state regulators years to resolve. Meanwhile, Tesla could be operating on public roads."
Tesla did not respond to requests for comment.
A VEHICLE WITHOUT CONVENTIONAL CONTROLS
Tesla started manufacturing the Cybercab in April, and Musk promised production would grow "exponentially" later in the year or next. During its unveiling in 2024, Musk had said that the company would also sell them for less than $30,000.
Since then, Tesla launched a limited, paid robotaxi service in Texas and Florida with its best-selling Model Y SUVs. The Model Y robotaxi drives itself, but it has the manual controls required by federal safety standards, as well as human backup drivers in some cars.
Experts have questioned how well Teslas can drive themselves. Tesla has said its Full Self-Driving software, a version of which runs Cybercabs, is up to 10 times safer than human drivers, and its Austin service has operated without a fatal accident. But Reuters interviews with multiple former Tesla employees who trained the company's self-driving software showed it continued to struggle with basic maneuvers.
"No public information about Tesla's capabilities suggests that Tesla is anywhere close to being able to safely and reliably deploy an automated driving system over the wide range of conditions that would be required for a vehicle without conventional controls," said Bryant Walker Smith, a University of South Carolina law professor focused on autonomous-driving regulation.
A PATH TO PUBLIC ROADS
For vehicles that do not comply with safety standards, NHTSA offers an exemption process that automakers can apply for. The catch: it caps deployment to 2,500 vehicles annually.
Tesla's Cybercab will not be subject to that cap, the company's engineering chief Lars Moravy said on social media platform X earlier this year without offering details. In the past, NHTSA has said that Tesla had not applied for it.
That has sparked speculation that Tesla has chosen to self-certify, as Koopman suggested.
Precedent does not bode well, however: Amazon's Zoox, which is rolling out a vehicle resembling a toaster oven on wheels, with two bench seats facing each other and no driving controls, tried the self-certification route and failed.
After Zoox certified its vehicle, NHTSA launched an investigation that ended with Zoox withdrawing the claim. Still, about a year after that, Zoox received the federal exemption for limited commercial deployment in July.
Any clash between NHTSA and Tesla over the company's self certification could land in court, three former senior NHTSA officials told Reuters before Thursday's event. "It does happen from time to time and NHTSA, importantly, has not always won these cases," one of them said.
Tesla Inc‘s (NASDAQ:TSLA) Cybercab launch was supposed to be about robotaxis. But less than 24 hours later, CEO Elon Musk shifted the conversation to the skies, calling autonomous flight “an important next step” for electric aircraft. The timing suggests that Tesla’s latest unveiling wasn’t just about a new vehicle—it was about a broader vision for AI-powered transportation.
At the Cybercab launch event, the engineering team didn’t spend most of its presentation talking about battery range, acceleration or even the vehicle itself. Instead, executives devoted much of the launch to explaining the artificial intelligence behind the robotaxi.
AI Before Everything ElseOne theme dominated Tesla’s Cybercab launch: autonomy is an intelligence problem.
“The core issue for self-driving is one of intelligence,” Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s vehicle software chief, told attendees, pushing back against the industry’s view that safe autonomous driving requires lidar, radar and high-definition maps.
“You need to understand what is going on. You need to predict what is going to happen in the future,” he said. “No sensor in the world is going to tell you what’s going to happen in the future. It is something an intelligent agent is going to have to figure out.”
Trending
Tesla said that philosophy led it to build an “AI-first, end-to-end driving stack” that relies on camera inputs rather than a suite of expensive sensors. The company argued that humans navigate roads primarily through vision, and that artificial intelligence can learn to do the same by training on vast amounts of real-world driving data.
Executives also revealed that Tesla has now logged more than one million miles of unsupervised robotaxi operation, crediting billions of miles of customer driving data with helping train its autonomous driving models.
The company said the system has accumulated “more than a thousand lifetimes of experience,” allowing it to recognize rare driving scenarios before they happen.
A Clue Beyond CarsAgainst that backdrop, Musk’s latest social media post takes on a different meaning.
Responding to Heart Aerospace’s successful demonstration of its battery-electric X1 aircraft, Musk wrote: “I’m so glad this is being done! An important next step is making it autonomous.”
The remark wasn’t a product announcement, nor did Musk suggest Tesla is building an aircraft. Instead, it echoed the central argument Tesla had spent the previous day making: that once artificial intelligence can reliably understand and predict the physical world, the same autonomy principles could eventually apply beyond cars.
That consistency matters. Rather than describing Cybercab as simply Tesla’s newest electric vehicle, executives repeatedly framed it as the first large-scale deployment of an AI system designed to drive safely without human intervention.
What Investors Should WatchCybercab may be the product investors can see, but Tesla’s messaging suggests the company’s longer-term ambition lies elsewhere.
Throughout the launch, executives emphasized intelligence over hardware, prediction over sensors and AI over traditional automotive engineering. Musk’s comments on autonomous aviation fit neatly into that narrative, hinting that he increasingly views autonomy as a technology platform that can power multiple forms of transportation—not just robotaxis.
Whether that vision ultimately extends beyond roads remains uncertain. But if Cybercab succeeds in proving Tesla’s AI-first approach at scale, investors may come to see the robotaxi not as the destination, but as the first commercial demonstration of a much broader autonomy strategy.
AlpenGlobal Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA – Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 35,511 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock, valued at approximately $14,936,000. Tesla comprises approximately 9.6% of AlpenGlobal Capital LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its biggest holding.
Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Chapman Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Tesla during the second quarter worth about $26,000. Friedenthal Financial boosted its holdings in shares of Tesla by 66.7% during the 1st quarter. Friedenthal Financial now owns 75 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Turning Point Benefit Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Tesla in the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX purchased a new stake in shares of Tesla in the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Finally, Harborfront Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Tesla in the second quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.20% of the company’s stock.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades A number of research firms have weighed in on TSLA. William Blair reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Tesla in a research note on Thursday, July 2nd. Erste Group Bank upgraded Tesla from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, June 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $500.00 price target on shares of Tesla in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Mizuho set a $450.00 target price on shares of Tesla and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $475.00 target price on shares of Tesla in a report on Monday, July 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have issued a Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $401.74.
Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on TSLA Tesla Stock Performance NASDAQ TSLA opened at $376.36 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $358.73 and a 200-day simple moving average of $383.30. The company has a current ratio of 1.94, a quick ratio of 1.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The stock has a market cap of $1.49 trillion, a PE ratio of 348.48, a P/E/G ratio of 18.02 and a beta of 1.84. Tesla, Inc. has a twelve month low of $297.38 and a twelve month high of $498.83.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.50 by ($0.17). The company had revenue of $28.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $26.42 billion. Tesla had a net margin of 3.67% and a return on equity of 3.82%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 25.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.33 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Tesla, Inc. will post 0.88 earnings per share for the current year.
Insider Activity In other news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,606 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $402.20, for a total value of $1,048,133.20. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 22,039 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,864,085.80. The trade was a 10.57% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Company insiders own 19.90% of the company’s stock.
Key Tesla News Here are the key news stories impacting Tesla this week:
Positive Sentiment: Cybercab service expanded in Austin. Tesla has begun offering driverless rides in its purpose-built, two-seat Cybercab, which reportedly has no steering wheel or pedals. The launch provides a tangible demonstration of Elon Musk’s autonomy strategy and could support a future robotaxi network. Tesla Cybercabs Hit Austin Streets in Expansion of Robotaxi Service Positive Sentiment: Commercial ecosystem is beginning to form. Tesla is soliciting businesses interested in purchasing Cybercab fleets or supplying charging and other infrastructure, suggesting ambitions beyond operating a small pilot fleet. Tesla is asking people if they want to buy and run Cybercab fleets Positive Sentiment: Potential regulatory progress and product support. France has started testing Tesla’s Full Self-Driving technology, while the Model Y L reportedly received a better-than-expected EPA range rating. These developments could improve Tesla’s autonomy credibility and vehicle appeal. France starts tests on Tesla’s self-driving tech Neutral Sentiment: The launch remains largely a promise until Tesla demonstrates scale. The Austin event was private and details on production volumes, pricing, operating economics and broad availability remain limited. Morgan Stanley has warned that a small initial fleet could disappoint investors. Negative Sentiment: Competition, safety and valuation risks remain substantial. Waymo is ahead in U.S. robotaxi operations, while Tesla’s FSD faces renewed scrutiny after a reported fatal Illinois crash. At roughly $1.49 trillion in market value and a very high earnings multiple, TSLA requires strong autonomous-vehicle execution to justify its valuation. Tesla keeps hyping robotaxis as its future Negative Sentiment: Core automotive and energy concerns persist. European sales were mixed, China sales growth slowed, Cybertruck demand has disappointed, and Tesla reportedly stopped taking Solar Roof orders. These issues reinforce investor concerns that the autonomy narrative is compensating for weaker established businesses. About Tesla (Free Report)
Tesla, Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) is an American company that designs, manufactures and sells electric vehicles, energy generation and energy storage products. Founded in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, Tesla grew into a vertically integrated mobility and clean‑energy company with Elon Musk serving as its chief executive officer. The company’s stated mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy, reflected in its combined focus on electric drivetrains, battery technology, renewable energy products and software.
Tesla’s automotive business includes a lineup of battery‑electric vehicles and related services.
Further Reading Five stocks we like better than Tesla The Path to $230 Billion: Broadcom Outlines the Next Phase of Its AI Growth Story NVIDIA’s Hugging Face Deal Raises a Bigger Question About Its AI Moat Now Dropping the Dough: Yum! Brands Strategically Trims the Fat These 3 Stock Charts Just Flashed the Dreaded Death Cross Pattern
Receive News & Ratings for Tesla Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Tesla and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.
Advisors Preferred LLC acquired a new position in shares of Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA – Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 4,200 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock, valued at approximately $1,652,000.
A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Turning Point Benefit Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Tesla in the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX bought a new stake in shares of Tesla in the 3rd quarter worth $31,000. Friedenthal Financial raised its stake in shares of Tesla by 66.7% in the 1st quarter. Friedenthal Financial now owns 75 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Chapman Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Tesla in the second quarter valued at $26,000. Finally, Harborfront Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Tesla during the second quarter valued at about $34,000. 66.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Insider Activity at Tesla In related news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,606 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $402.20, for a total transaction of $1,048,133.20. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 22,039 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,864,085.80. The trade was a 10.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Corporate insiders own 19.90% of the company’s stock.
Tesla Price Performance TSLA opened at $376.36 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.49 trillion, a P/E ratio of 348.48, a PEG ratio of 18.02 and a beta of 1.84. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $358.73 and a 200-day moving average of $383.30. The company has a quick ratio of 1.55, a current ratio of 1.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. Tesla, Inc. has a 12-month low of $297.38 and a 12-month high of $498.83. Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by ($0.17). The business had revenue of $28.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $26.42 billion. Tesla had a net margin of 3.67% and a return on equity of 3.82%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 25.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.33 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Tesla, Inc. will post 0.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In TSLA has been the topic of several research reports. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $485.00 price target (down from $510.00) on shares of Tesla in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. UBS Group set a $460.00 price objective on shares of Tesla in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Evercore raised shares of Tesla from a “hold” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, June 5th. DZ Bank upgraded shares of Tesla from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane lowered shares of Tesla from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, June 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have issued a Buy rating, eighteen have given a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $401.74.
Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on TSLA
More Tesla News Here are the key news stories impacting Tesla this week:
Positive Sentiment: Cybercab service expanded in Austin. Tesla has begun offering driverless rides in its purpose-built, two-seat Cybercab, which reportedly has no steering wheel or pedals. The launch provides a tangible demonstration of Elon Musk’s autonomy strategy and could support a future robotaxi network. Tesla Cybercabs Hit Austin Streets in Expansion of Robotaxi Service Positive Sentiment: Commercial ecosystem is beginning to form. Tesla is soliciting businesses interested in purchasing Cybercab fleets or supplying charging and other infrastructure, suggesting ambitions beyond operating a small pilot fleet. Tesla is asking people if they want to buy and run Cybercab fleets Positive Sentiment: Potential regulatory progress and product support. France has started testing Tesla’s Full Self-Driving technology, while the Model Y L reportedly received a better-than-expected EPA range rating. These developments could improve Tesla’s autonomy credibility and vehicle appeal. France starts tests on Tesla’s self-driving tech Neutral Sentiment: The launch remains largely a promise until Tesla demonstrates scale. The Austin event was private and details on production volumes, pricing, operating economics and broad availability remain limited. Morgan Stanley has warned that a small initial fleet could disappoint investors. Negative Sentiment: Competition, safety and valuation risks remain substantial. Waymo is ahead in U.S. robotaxi operations, while Tesla’s FSD faces renewed scrutiny after a reported fatal Illinois crash. At roughly $1.49 trillion in market value and a very high earnings multiple, TSLA requires strong autonomous-vehicle execution to justify its valuation. Tesla keeps hyping robotaxis as its future Negative Sentiment: Core automotive and energy concerns persist. European sales were mixed, China sales growth slowed, Cybertruck demand has disappointed, and Tesla reportedly stopped taking Solar Roof orders. These issues reinforce investor concerns that the autonomy narrative is compensating for weaker established businesses. Tesla Company Profile (Free Report)
Tesla, Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) is an American company that designs, manufactures and sells electric vehicles, energy generation and energy storage products. Founded in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, Tesla grew into a vertically integrated mobility and clean‑energy company with Elon Musk serving as its chief executive officer. The company’s stated mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy, reflected in its combined focus on electric drivetrains, battery technology, renewable energy products and software.
Tesla’s automotive business includes a lineup of battery‑electric vehicles and related services.
Featured Stories Five stocks we like better than Tesla The Path to $230 Billion: Broadcom Outlines the Next Phase of Its AI Growth Story NVIDIA’s Hugging Face Deal Raises a Bigger Question About Its AI Moat Now Dropping the Dough: Yum! Brands Strategically Trims the Fat These 3 Stock Charts Just Flashed the Dreaded Death Cross Pattern Want to see what other hedge funds are holding TSLA? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA – Free Report).
Receive News & Ratings for Tesla Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Tesla and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.
Blue Capital Inc. bought a new stake in Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA – Free Report) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 2,518 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock, valued at approximately $1,059,000.
Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Chapman Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Tesla in the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Friedenthal Financial lifted its stake in shares of Tesla by 66.7% in the 1st quarter. Friedenthal Financial now owns 75 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. Turning Point Benefit Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Tesla in the third quarter valued at about $30,000. Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX acquired a new position in shares of Tesla during the third quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, Harborfront Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Tesla during the second quarter worth about $34,000. 66.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Tesla Trading Up 5.4% NASDAQ:TSLA opened at $376.36 on Friday. Tesla, Inc. has a 52-week low of $297.38 and a 52-week high of $498.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.55, a current ratio of 1.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $358.73 and a 200-day simple moving average of $383.30. The company has a market capitalization of $1.49 trillion, a PE ratio of 348.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 18.02 and a beta of 1.84.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 23rd. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by ($0.17). The business had revenue of $28.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $26.42 billion. Tesla had a net margin of 3.67% and a return on equity of 3.82%. Tesla’s revenue was up 25.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.33 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Tesla, Inc. will post 0.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year. Trending Headlines about Tesla Here are the key news stories impacting Tesla this week:
Positive Sentiment: Cybercab service expanded in Austin. Tesla has begun offering driverless rides in its purpose-built, two-seat Cybercab, which reportedly has no steering wheel or pedals. The launch provides a tangible demonstration of Elon Musk’s autonomy strategy and could support a future robotaxi network. Tesla Cybercabs Hit Austin Streets in Expansion of Robotaxi Service Positive Sentiment: Commercial ecosystem is beginning to form. Tesla is soliciting businesses interested in purchasing Cybercab fleets or supplying charging and other infrastructure, suggesting ambitions beyond operating a small pilot fleet. Tesla is asking people if they want to buy and run Cybercab fleets Positive Sentiment: Potential regulatory progress and product support. France has started testing Tesla’s Full Self-Driving technology, while the Model Y L reportedly received a better-than-expected EPA range rating. These developments could improve Tesla’s autonomy credibility and vehicle appeal. France starts tests on Tesla’s self-driving tech Neutral Sentiment: The launch remains largely a promise until Tesla demonstrates scale. The Austin event was private and details on production volumes, pricing, operating economics and broad availability remain limited. Morgan Stanley has warned that a small initial fleet could disappoint investors. Negative Sentiment: Competition, safety and valuation risks remain substantial. Waymo is ahead in U.S. robotaxi operations, while Tesla’s FSD faces renewed scrutiny after a reported fatal Illinois crash. At roughly $1.49 trillion in market value and a very high earnings multiple, TSLA requires strong autonomous-vehicle execution to justify its valuation. Tesla keeps hyping robotaxis as its future Negative Sentiment: Core automotive and energy concerns persist. European sales were mixed, China sales growth slowed, Cybertruck demand has disappointed, and Tesla reportedly stopped taking Solar Roof orders. These issues reinforce investor concerns that the autonomy narrative is compensating for weaker established businesses. Wall Street Analyst Weigh In A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on TSLA shares. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Tesla from an “underperform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, June 5th. BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on Tesla in a report on Monday, August 17th. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. Stifel Nicolaus set a $491.00 price target on Tesla and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Glj Research reiterated a “sell” rating on shares of Tesla in a research report on Tuesday, August 18th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Tesla in a report on Friday, June 5th. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have issued a Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $401.74.
Get Our Latest Research Report on TSLA
Insider Activity at Tesla In other news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,606 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $402.20, for a total transaction of $1,048,133.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 22,039 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,864,085.80. This trade represents a 10.57% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. 19.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.
Tesla Company Profile (Free Report)
Tesla, Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) is an American company that designs, manufactures and sells electric vehicles, energy generation and energy storage products. Founded in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, Tesla grew into a vertically integrated mobility and clean‑energy company with Elon Musk serving as its chief executive officer. The company’s stated mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy, reflected in its combined focus on electric drivetrains, battery technology, renewable energy products and software.
Tesla’s automotive business includes a lineup of battery‑electric vehicles and related services.
Read More Five stocks we like better than Tesla The Path to $230 Billion: Broadcom Outlines the Next Phase of Its AI Growth Story NVIDIA’s Hugging Face Deal Raises a Bigger Question About Its AI Moat Now Dropping the Dough: Yum! Brands Strategically Trims the Fat These 3 Stock Charts Just Flashed the Dreaded Death Cross Pattern Want to see what other hedge funds are holding TSLA? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA – Free Report).
Receive News & Ratings for Tesla Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Tesla and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.
You are now leaving Barron's websiteBy clicking on the “Proceed” button below, you will be redirected to a third-party website owned and operated by Hong Kong Tiimoot Information Technology Co., Limited. (“HKT”), which is located in Hong Kong. That website operates independently from Barron's and Barron's does not control the website. The privacy practices of HKT are subject to its Privacy Statement, so please read it closely. We are not responsible for HKT's privacy or other data-related practices.
The United States’ top automotive safety regulator has opened an investigation into Tesla’s decision to launch its new Cybercab on public roads with no steering wheel or pedals.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced Friday morning that it opened the probe mere hours after Tesla put the first Cybercabs on the streets of Austin, Texas. Federal vehicle safety regulations require manual controls like brake pedals, though the Department of Transportation recently proposed removing those requirements for vehicles that are designed to be autonomously driven.
NHTSA said Friday that Tesla told the agency that it self-certified the Cybercab as being compliant with all of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS). Automakers traditionally self-certify whether their vehicles comply with FMVSS rules.
In the filing, the agency said it was opening the investigation to “examine the process and technical data on which Tesla relied when certifying the Cybercab and related issues.” NHTSA said it will consider the extent to which the company’s certification depended on determinations that certain federal motor standards are inapplicable to the Cybercab.
There is precedent to NHTSA’s inquiry. In 2022, Amazon-owned autonomous vehicle company Zoox self certified its cube-like robotaxi, which lacks traditional controls such as a steering wheel and pedals. NHTSA then opened up what it called a “special order” seeking more information from Zoox and formally launched an audit query — the same process it is now using for Tesla — the following the year.
While Zoox was still heavily in its testing phase at that time, the investigation did slow its path to commercialization. Zoox had long maintained that the self certification process was sufficient and in 2025 the federal agency gave the company an exemption to demonstrate — not commercially operate — its technology. Zoox then went through the official process and filed for a temporary Part 555 exemption from eight Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards in hopes it would get the final OK that would allow it to charge for robotaxi rides.
Zoox received final approval for that exemption in July 2026, eliminating one of the last remaining regulatory hurdles the company needed to clear before launching a commercial robotaxi service. The exemption did place some limits on Zoox. Under the temporary exemption, Zoox can add 2,500 vehicles per year to its commercial fleet, over the next for two years. Zoox opened up its commercial service several weeks later and now charges for rides in Las Vegas.
Whether Tesla will face a similarly long process is unclear. Zoox navigated the regulatory process under the Biden and Trump administrations.
Topics
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.
Sean O’Kane is a reporter who has spent a decade covering the rapidly-evolving business and technology of the transportation industry, including Tesla and the many startups chasing Elon Musk. Most recently, he was a reporter at Bloomberg News where he helped break stories about some of the most notorious EV SPAC flops. He previously worked at The Verge, where he also covered consumer technology, hosted many short- and long-form videos, performed product and editorial photography, and once nearly passed out in a Red Bull Air Race plane.
You can contact or verify outreach from Sean by emailing [email protected] or via encrypted message at okane.01 on Signal.
Kirsten Korosec is a reporter and editor who has covered the future of transportation from EVs and autonomous vehicles to urban air mobility and in-car tech for more than a decade. She is currently the transportation editor at TechCrunch and co-host of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast. She is also co-founder and co-host of the podcast, “The Autonocast.” She previously wrote for Fortune, The Verge, Bloomberg, MIT Technology Review and CBS Interactive.
You can contact or verify outreach from Kirsten by emailing [email protected] or via encrypted message at kkorosec.07 on Signal.
Tim Higgins, The Wall Street Journal business columnist, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss Tesla's Cybercab robotaxi rollout, future of Tesla's growth, and more.
Nine hundred million dollars in call premium flooded into Tesla before the Cybercab reveal, and options desks called the flow notably bullish. What traders rarely tell you is why that kind of positioning usually misleads the people following it most…
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.
Options desks lit up around Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA | TSLA Price Prediction) ahead of its Cybercab reveal, and CNBC’s Oliver Renick reported that Tesla and SpaceX ranked number one and number four by options volume with notably bullish flows. The headline making the rounds was that roughly $900 million in call premium had piled into the name before the event.
That crowd is telling you something about expectations. It is telling you very little that is reliable about outcomes, and most readers who follow this kind of positioning into a binary catalyst lose money because they conflate the two.
A call is a paid bet on upside. Premium is the price of that bet. When traders pay a heavy premium for short-dated calls with a known expiration date, they are expressing a view that the stock might move sharply higher soon. They are also, at the same moment, paying more for the privilege because implied volatility rises when uncertainty is high.
Tesla closed at $376.37, up 5.42% on the session, and has run 14.97% higher over the past month even as it sits down 16.31% year to date.
What the Flow Actually Looked Like On the midday CNBC tape, Renick said, “Both Tesla and SpaceX [are] number one and number four by options volume today. And the flows are notably bullish.”
Tesla’s full-chain put-call ratio was 0.61, indicating that far more call contracts changed hands than put contracts. The Sept 4 expiry alone traded 376,610 calls against 226,485 puts.
Contract counts are the crude number. Premium is the more reliable one, because a single large in-the-money order can carry more weight than thousands of cheap out-of-the-money lottery tickets.
When premium clusters in calls before a catalyst, it means real money accepted a real cost to own upside exposure. That is a stronger read than raw volume.
Concentration matters too. TSLA carries 453,726 calls of open interest at the Sept 18 expiry and 647,093 calls at Jan 15, 2027, so the pre-event buying is layered onto an already call-heavy structure.
Put Selling on SpaceX Told You More The more revealing trade in Renick’s segment was on SpaceX, where CNBC flagged a large block of in-the-money puts sold with a January 2028 expiration.
Selling a put is a commitment. The seller collects premium up front and agrees to buy the underlying at the strike if the stock trades there by expiration.
Doing that on a multi-year, in-the-money strike is a different statement than buying a two-day call. That trader is expressing a willingness to own the asset.
That kind of durable conviction is rare in event windows. It usually shows up from parties who would be content to be assigned shares.
SpaceX is context here. The point transfers to Tesla: sold puts on long-dated paper are usually a more useful read than bought calls on weekly paper.
Why Heavy Call Buying Is Weaker Evidence Than It Looks Dealer hedging distorts flow. When market makers sell calls to a customer, they often buy stock to offset the delta, which lifts the underlying and makes the activity look self-reinforcing.
Funds also buy calls as protection on short positions. That flow reads bullish in a scanner but represents defense.
A meaningful share of retail call buying is a lottery ticket. The mechanism is simple: implied volatility gets bid up before the catalyst and compressed after it, and if the stock does not move far enough to overcome that reset, the calls decay.
Tesla trades at a P/E of about 392x, against consensus FY26 EPS of $1.7727, with 18 downward revisions in the past 30 days versus 7 upward. Paying a rich option premium into that fundamental setup requires the stock to travel a long way, quickly.
The last quarter showed the tension plainly: Q2 2026 revenue of $28.24 billion beat estimates while EPS of $0.33 missed the $0.5367 consensus, as disclosed in Tesla’s Q2 8-K exhibit.
What a Shareholder Should Take From This Options positioning is a sentiment reading with a short shelf life. For a trader with a two-day horizon, it is the whole game. For a holder with a two-year horizon, it is noise.
Tesla is a long-duration bet on autonomy and robotics. On the Q2 call, Elon Musk said Robotaxi miles were compounding “more than 10% a week in terms of miles driven”, and CFO Vaibhav Taneja said FSD attach reached nearly 1.5 million paid customers globally.
Those numbers matter more to a shareholder than whether one week of call premium priced the near term correctly. The Cybercab began pilot production at Gigafactory Texas, and that ramp will decide the thesis over any single expiry.
The desk also flagged that Tesla was still below its 200-day moving average. That line simply smooths the last ten months of price to show whether the recent trend sits above or below the medium-term trend. It is a coordinate for framing the recent trend.
Analyst targets average $390.09 against 22 buys, 19 holds, and 5 sells, so the sell side sees limited near-term upside even as call buyers reach for a bigger number. A patient owner should treat the pre-event flow as weather and keep watching the fleet.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Tesla's Cybercab made its Austin debut with rides and fanfare, but the launch raised more questions than it answered about scale, safety approvals, and who actually profits if the robotaxi bet pays off.
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA | TSLA Price Prediction) shares are sliding 3% to $363.80 in early Friday trading after Thursday’s Cybercab launch event left deployment, production ramp, and regulatory questions unanswered. The reversal is sharp because the run into the event had already priced a strong showing.
Heading into Friday, Tesla stock closed Thursday at $376.37 after rising 5%. That capped a soft year, with Tesla shares down 16% year to date (YTD) through Thursday’s close, the weakest performer among the Magnificent Seven. For context, the Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ), which tracks the NASDAQ 100, is unchanged at $718.
Cybercab Details Underwhelm on Scale and Approvals Tesla formally added the two-seat Cybercab, which has no steering wheel and no pedals, to its robotaxi fleet in Austin and offered attendees rides. The presentation wasn’t livestreamed and disclosed few concrete deployment metrics. As of Wednesday, Tesla had registered 45 Cybercabs in Texas, per Stocktwits, while its Texas robotaxi fleet totals about 420 vehicles, mostly Model Ys.
The regulatory picture is unresolved. Tesla hadn’t filed an exemption request with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) as of Wednesday, and NHTSA is evaluating the Austin Cybercab rides because the vehicle lacks steering wheels, pedals, and mirrors, features generally required under federal safety standards.
Waymo Sets the Bar Tesla Must Clear Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) owns Waymo, Alphabet’s autonomous driving unit and Tesla’s principal robotaxi competitor. Waymo has nearly 1,000 vehicles registered, per Stocktwits, and disclosed more than 500,000 fully autonomous rides a week in Q1 2026 commentary from CEO Sundar Pichai. That’s the operational-scale benchmark Tesla’s Cybercab has to answer.
Tesla watchers are split, and Future Fund Managing Director Gary Black said Tesla’s Cybercab event was largely a bust despite efforts to control the narrative. Deepwater Asset Management Managing Partner Gene Munster predicted Tesla would add 300 Cybercabs in Austin over the next month. Both readings come from the same thin disclosure, which is why the reaction can swing hard on the next data point.
SpaceX Sits Beneath Tesla’s Autonomy Story SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX) sits underneath the robotaxi build in an unusual way, and Tesla plans to use SpaceX’s Starlink to reduce connectivity dropouts across its robotaxi fleet, per Stocktwits. On CNBC, Gerber Kawasaki CEO Ross Gerber stated he owns “a lot more SpaceX” than Tesla, argued that Tesla “doesn’t own its own operating system, it’s owned by SpaceX,” and said the issue must be resolved “either by merging the companies or something.” That shifts the debate from whether autonomy works to who captures the economics if it does.
What to Watch Next Near-term markers include any NHTSA response on an exemption filing, the pace of Cybercab registrations in Texas, and expansion beyond Austin. Tesla-specific disclosure gaps are driving today’s action rather than sector rotation.
Investors can watch for concrete deployment metrics: registered Cybercab counts, weekly ride volume, and any NHTSA action on the exemption request. With Tesla shares already lagging the Magnificent Seven this year and the gap to Waymo’s registered fleet still wide, sizing their exposure around the pace of disclosure rather than event optics should keep their risk in check.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Tesla just put driverless Cybercabs on Austin streets, but the loudest question on Wall Street has nothing to do with robotaxis. Prediction markets are pricing something far bigger, and it could redefine what Tesla even is by 2027.
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.
Elon Musk promised a storm of cyber cabs. The morning after, Wall Street is trying to figure out whether Tesla is even going to stay a standalone company long enough to build them at scale.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA | TSLA Price Prediction) put driverless Cybercabs on public streets in Austin for paying customers this week, the milestone Musk has been teasing for more than a decade. But roughly 2 million people waited on X for a livestream that never aired, Tesla opted for a closed event instead, and The Wall Street Journal’s Tim Higgins called the rollout “maybe less of a storm and more of a drizzle”. The stock still closed up 6% on the week at $376.37 on September 3, and shares are still down 16% year to date.
Meanwhile, on Polymarket, bettors are pricing a Tesla-SpaceX merger announcement at 46.5% by the end of 2027. That is the story the retail crowd is actually paying to be right about.
Storm Promised, Drizzle Delivered on Austin Streets The Cybercab is Tesla’s purpose-built robotaxi: no steering wheel, no pedals, no human backup in the driver’s seat. Tesla says pilot production began at Gigafactory Texas with engineering test drives on public roads in Austin, with volume production targeted for 2026. That is the real milestone, and Higgins credited it even while dinging the presentation.
Where Tesla still trails is deployment. Higgins pointed out that Waymo vehicles are “almost ubiquitous” in San Francisco while Tesla’s Cybercabs in that city still require human operators, and Zoox is also ahead on unsupervised miles. Tesla’s counter-argument is manufacturing: the ability to “spit out millions of these things very quickly once they’re ready to go,” versus Waymo retrofitting vehicles it does not build.
On the July earnings call, Tesla’s VP of AI Ashok said “We have driven more than 380,000 miles of unsupervised Robotaxi, now across six cities in two different states. We have had zero notable incidents.” Musk framed the constraint as safety math, not demand: “It’s really just about going through what we call the March of Nines of reliability.” He also flagged that Cybercab specifically needs its own dataset before the fleet scales: “Because it is a new vehicle chassis, we need to accumulate… driving data that is specific to the cybercap before we can put a lot of them on the road.”
Polymarket Prices a Coin Flip on a Tesla-SpaceX Combination Polymarket’s headline market, “Tesla and SpaceX merger officially announced by…?”, has drawn $517,095 in volume and prices the timing ladder like this:
Deadline for merger announcement Polymarket implied odds By December 31, 2027 46.5% By June 30, 2027 30.5% By February 28, 2027 23% By January 31, 2027 21.5% By December 31, 2026 16.5% By September 30, 2026 3.8% The long-dated contract has been remarkably stable, trading between 0.455 and 0.465 over the past week. That is unusual. Merger rumor markets tend to bleed lower on quiet news days. This one is holding a coin-flip line, and Polymarket’s historical crowd correct rate of 76.3% across 338 resolved TSLA-related markets is a reason not to wave it off.
Why Bettors Think Tesla Could Get Wrapped Into SpaceX This is a chain of already-disclosed transactions. Tesla’s CFO Vaibhav Taneja said on the Q2 call that Tesla booked “a mark-to-market gain of $1 billion on our SpaceX holdings”. Tesla’s general counsel Brandon added, “Earlier this year, we deepened our relationship through an investment and a framework agreement.” The Q1 filings disclosed a $2 billion Tesla investment into SpaceX Series E-equivalent equity, plus a jointly built semiconductor research fab at the Gigafactory Texas campus.
When a Wells Fargo analyst asked Musk directly about combination synergies, he did not shut the door. “As you can tell from the many collaborations on so many fronts with SpaceX, there’s more and more overlap,” he said, before adding, “Obviously, we can’t talk about combining companies and that kind of thing.” Starlink is being integrated into Cybercab because, as Musk put it, “For a rovo taxi situation, you need to have coverage everywhere” and cellular has too many dead zones.
Higgins said on CNBC: whether Tesla “will get wrapped into space x” is “one of the biggest questions hanging over” the stock, potentially overshadowing the Cybercab launch itself. The valuation math on the other side matters too: Oppenheimer’s Tim Horan recently raised his SpaceX target to $280, arguing its AI business could support a roughly $2 trillion valuation, against Tesla’s $1.41 trillion market cap.
Robovan and Optimus Bets Are Where Polymarket Gets Skeptical The merger is priced like a coin flip. The near-term product promises trade at a steep discount. Polymarket gives just 3.6% odds that Tesla releases Optimus by December 31, 2026, and 11.5% odds Tesla opens Robovan orders before 2027. That is the credibility ledger in one glance: bettors take the corporate-structure story more seriously than any specific 2026 product ship date.
Musk himself set expectations on Optimus deferring to 2027-and-later cycles, saying Optimus 4 would target “an order of magnitude more production of Optimus 4 than Optimus 3”, and TerraFab, the Austin semiconductor fab, is the gating item. “Without which we will be constrained in our ability to scale optimist production because we simply won’t have enough AI chips,” he said. That fab, notably, is a joint effort with SpaceX.
How the Fundamentals Actually Look Right Now Q2 was a revenue beat and a margin miss. Tesla reported revenue of $28.24B, up 25.5% year over year, beating consensus of $26.36B by 7%, while non-GAAP EPS came in at $0.33 versus $0.5367 expected, missing expectations by 39%. Operating income fell 56.9% year over year to $398M as operating expenses surged 47% to $4.35B on AI infrastructure, R&D, and the 2025 CEO Performance Award stock-based comp. Free cash flow was negative $1.09B against capex of $5.79B, up 142% year over year.
Deliveries hit a record 480,126 vehicles, up 25% year over year. Active FSD subscriptions reached 1.48M, up 56% year over year, with attach rates above 55% on new North American deliveries. Cash on the balance sheet stands at $43.52B, up 179% year over year. On valuation, Tesla trades at a P/E of roughly 392, which only makes sense if you believe the robotaxi and Optimus stories.
What to Watch Next I’ve been watching this company for over 15 years, and every Tesla story eventually collapses into the same question: is Musk’s next promise close enough to reality to keep the stock’s premium intact? Today, the more interesting bet on Polymarket is not whether Cybercab hits volume production on schedule. It is whether Tesla is still called Tesla when it does.
Three things to keep an eye on. First, whether the Polymarket merger odds hold their 46.5% line or drift as September plays out. Second, TerraFab’s location announcement, which Musk teased on the earnings call as “a very big announcement” that would arrive separately. Third, the unsupervised-miles curve. Ashok said “Robotaxi growth so far has been literally exponential while keeping an impeccable safety record,” and the whole valuation stack depends on that staying true.
Buy Tesla here if you believe Musk drags SpaceX’s AI story into a combined company that dominates autonomy and humanoid robotics. Avoid it if you think Waymo and Zoox scale first, the Cybercab drizzle keeps drizzling, and the $1.41 trillion market cap is a bill that eventually comes due. Every company is becoming a tech company or dying, and Tesla is either the purest expression of that idea or the most expensive one on the board. This week did not settle the argument. Polymarket, at least, has already placed its chips.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
While the August jobs report will clear some fog around the job market, Tom White says the focus will be all on inflation prints instead. He explains why next week's CPI will take up more oxygen from Wall Street as the Fed doubles down in its 2% inflation goal.
Federal regulators have opened an investigation into whether Tesla’s new Cybercab model is compliant with safety regulations, a potentially big obstacle to the company’s plans to offer paid rides in the driverless vehicles.
The investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began Thursday, according to a document posted on the agency’s website, the same day that Tesla displayed dozens of Cybercabs in Austin, Texas, near the factory where they are produced.
Tesla has indicated that it plans to offer paid rides in the Cybercabs, which do not have steering wheels, brake pedals or side and rearview mirrors.
Federal regulators allow carmakers to certify on their own that vehicles comply with car safety standards. Among other things, the regulations require cars to have brakes and steering wheels. Tesla may have decided that some regulations do not apply to Cybercabs, the agency said.
The agency “will consider the extent to which Tesla’s certification depended on determinations that certain F.M.V.S.S. are inapplicable to the Cybercab,” it said, referring to federal motor vehicle safety standards.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Na tomto místě můžete zahájit diskusi. Zatím nebyl zadán žádný názor. Do diskuse mohou přispívat pouze přihlášení uživatelé (Přihlásit). Pokud nemáte účet, na který byste se mohli přihlásit, registrujte se zde.
Aktuální komentáře
04.09.2026 14:41TESLA KARLÍN, a.s.: Oznámení o výplatě dividendy za rok 2025 14:40Škoda Auto: Nový transformační plán Volkswagenu nemá na firmu přímý dopad 13:51Perly týdne: Taktický ústup z akcií? 12:10Ropa míří k nejvyššímu týdennímu růstu od července 11:19ČEZ, a.s.: Oznámení o výplatě úrokového výnosu 10:47Akcie Volkswagenu na to šláply. Investoři vítají dohodu mezi vedením a zaměstnanci 10:28Maloobchodní tržby v Česku v červenci zrychlily meziroční růst na 4,8 procenta 9:59Inflace v srpnu vzrostla v souladu s poslední prognózou ČNB, služby zvolňují 9:07Dozorčí rada Volkswagenu jednomyslně schválila plán na zvýšení efektivity 8:47Rozbřesk: Koruna vyčkává na inflaci a payrolls, další holubičí hlas z Fedu před daty z trhu práce 8:31Anthropic se přiblížil IPO, výnosy japonských dluhopisů klesly, Meloniová slaví historický milník 6:06Goldman Sachs: Po mimořádně silném růstu akcií je na místě střízlivější očekávání 03.09.2026 17:41Tržby rostly napříč hlavními segmenty, čistý zisk Kofoly ale v prvním pololetí klesl 17:36Nejlepší prevence akciových ztrát 16:30Bloomberg: Rusové už mimo bankovní systém drží kvůli válce přes 20 bilionů rublů 15:50Fidelity: Technologie, AI a úvěrové dilema 15:44Nvidia kupuje za téměř 13 miliard dolarů platformu pro modely AI Hugging Face 14:56Deloitte: Evropské fúze a akvizice stouply ve 2. čtvrtletí mezikvartálně o 4 pct 14:19Meta se vytáhla s novým modelem. Tvrdí, že je srovnatelný s Claude Fable 5.1 od Anthropicu a lepší než GPT-5.6 Sol od OpenAI 12:35Braňo Soták k výsledkům Broadcomu: Tržní důvěra v poskytnutý výhled je to, oč tu běží
Reklama
Související komentáře
Nejčtenější zprávy dne
Nejčtenější zprávy týdne
Nejdiskutovanější zprávy týdne
Kalendář událostí
ČasUdálost 8:00DE - Průmyslové objednávky, y/y 9:00CZ - CPI, y/y 9:00CZ - Maloobchodní tržby, y/y 11:00EMU - Maloobchodní tržby, y/y 14:30USA - Míra nezaměstnanosti, s.a. 14:30USA - Změna počtu prac. míst
Potřebujte poradit?
Driverless two-seaters hit Austin streets ahead of a subdued unveiling, as regulators question Tesla's robotaxi pace.
Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) began offering rides in its two-seat Cybercab in limited areas of Austin, Texas, on Thursday, as a widely promoted "exclusive" launch event produced little in the way of public spectacle.
The electric carmaker had spent weeks building anticipation for what it called the Cybercab Launch Event, but Reuters reported that by Thursday evening Tesla had posted no live footage and neither Elon Musk nor other executives had made public remarks.
The vehicle
Cybercab is Tesla's first vehicle built specifically for autonomous operation, seating two people and dispensing entirely with a steering wheel or pedals.
The car relies on Tesla's AI4 computer and Full Self-Driving software for every mile, with no way for anyone inside to take manual control if the system fails.
Cars already on the road
Driverless Cybercabs appeared on public Austin streets on Wednesday, a day before the official event, with video clips on social media platform X showing the vehicles moving without anyone behind the wheel.
Musk posted "A storm of Cybercabs" on X, though public records from the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles showed just 45 Cybercabs authorised for driverless operation in the state, out of 420 vehicles registered in total.
A muted unveiling
Cybercab engineer Eric Earley had said the event would begin at 5:45 pm local time on Thursday in downtown Austin, with details to follow for those invited.
The gathering was invite-only, limited to winners of a sweepstake drawn from riders of Tesla's existing Robotaxi service, with a livestream promised for everyone else.
App and access rules
Tesla pushed an update to its Robotaxi app on Thursday morning, adding explicit support for Cybercab rides in Austin.
New terms of service bar minors under 13 from riding in a Cybercab, a stricter limit than the age of eight set for Tesla's existing Model Y robotaxis.
Regulatory scrutiny continues
The launch comes as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration keeps at least two active investigations open into whether Tesla's automated driving systems contain safety defects.
Cybercab's lack of manual backup controls has drawn particular attention from safety regulators already reviewing a string of incidents involving Tesla's driver assistance systems.
Price target still unproven
Musk has long promised a Cybercab priced under $30,000, but prediction market Polymarket gave traders only 17-18% odds that Tesla completes a genuine retail sale to a member of the public at that price by 31 December.
The contract explicitly excludes employee rides, fleet deployments and deposits, counting only a completed sale under publicly available terms.
What comes next
Tesla has signalled a four-city tour to promote Cybercab beyond Austin, though questions remain over whether the vehicle will ever operate in markets such as China, where autonomous ride-hailing is already dominated by domestic operators including Baidu's Apollo Go.
For now, the rollout adds a new vehicle to a robotaxi service that Tesla says has logged more than 380,000 unsupervised miles in Austin since launching in June 2025, with wider expansion still dependent on regulatory approval and fleet numbers that remain in the dozens rather than hundreds.
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it has opened an audit into about 1,000 Tesla (TSLA.O) Cybercab vehicles, examining the process and technical data the EV maker relied on to claim compliance with federal vehicle safety standards.
The probe comes after Tesla on Thursday began commercial deployment of a small number of the two-seater Cybercab in Austin, Texas, and said it planned to gradually expand the service to additional vehicles and locations.
NHTSA said the Cybercab lacks permanently attached conventional manual controls, including a steering wheel, brake pedal, accelerator pedal and mirrors.
The agency said it would examine the basis for Tesla's certification and related issues, including the extent to which the company determined that certain Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards were not applicable to the vehicle.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The EV maker had 420 autonomous vehicles registered in Texas as of Friday morning, according to state records, including 45 Cybercab vehicles.
Download this episode on Apple Podcasts/Spotify or listen below:
Another forecast trim, a China slowdown, and rising competition send lululemon (LULU) shares tumbling. (00:15) The robotaxi era begins with little fanfare as Tesla (TSLA) rolls out Cybercab rides in Austin. (01:49) Volkswagen (VWAGY) is preparing another 50,000 job cuts. (03:03)
This is an abridged transcript.
lululemon athletica (LULU) is a trending topic on Seeking Alpha.
LULU shares are underwater after the company cut its full-year sales guidance again and realized a much larger than expected decline in sales as China continues to disappoint and rivals gain ground in the U.S.
“While we continue to navigate some challenging dynamics, we are taking a prudent approach with our revised full-year outlook,” said Lululemon interim co-CEO Meghan Frank.
Although a new CEO is set to take over next week, lululemon (LULU) is expected to limp through the remainder of the year with another cut to sales guidance, now expected to contract by 5% to 7% to a range of $10.35B to $10.50B.
Moreover, the company now expects to earn a profit of $9.48 to $9.73 per share, down from between $10.95 to $11.15 per share and below the $10.93 per share estimate.
For the current quarter, net sales are expected to decline by 10% to 11%.
The downbeat outlook reflects second-quarter results in which revenue decreased 4% and comparable sales were down 9%, both of which were worse than expected.
Including an $0.86 per share benefit from tariff refunds, lululemon (LULU) earned a profit of $2.92 per share, down 6% year-over-year but better than expectations.
Shares are down 18% in premarket action.
Tesla (TSLA) will begin offering Cybercab rides in "limited areas" of Austin, Texas today, while its highly anticipated launch event ended on a fairly muted note.
There are 45 Cybercabs registered in Texas. The company did not include details on fares when they announced the launch on Thursday.
As for the event, there was no public livestream or journalists. The Verge reported that it had a very short invite list comprised largely of pro-Tesla (TSLA) content creators.
Attendees told Reuters that Elon Musk skipped the event. Executives discussed the Cybercab's manufacturing process and technology for about a quarter of an hour.
The golden two-seater vehicle is fully autonomous with no steering wheel or pedals, using camera vision and sensors for navigation. Tesla (TSLA) previously said the cost would be less than $30,000.
Children under the age of 13 are not permitted to ride in a Cybercab. Minors aged 13-17 can travel in a Cybercab if accompanied by an adult.
Shares of Tesla (TSLA) ended 5.4% higher on Thursday ahead of the Cybercab event, but are down 1.6% premarket.
Volkswagen AG (VWAGY) is getting rid of more people.
The company said on Thursday that its supervisory board has approved a wide-ranging restructuring program that includes a further reduction of 50,000 jobs.
The board voted unanimously on Thursday to endorse the company’s “Future Plan” for transforming the Volkswagen (VWAGY) Group and its brands. The program is intended to make the business more efficient and competitive and to better prepare it for the future.
The additional job cuts would take Volkswagen’s (VWAGY) expected workforce reduction to 100,000. The group also plans to cut the number of models it offers by around half by 2035 and reduce its holdings.
Volkswagen (VWAGY) said it would provide further details of the plan in the near future.
What’s Trending on Seeking Alpha:
What's shaping the geography of U.S. AI data centers?
Elon Musk’s super PAC spends $800K on key Republican midterm races
Oil trends toward biggest weekly gain since July; ING raises price forecast
Stock index futures are largely flat as investors focus on the upcoming jobs report.
Crude oil is down 0.5% at $90. Brent crude is down 0.4% at $95.
The FTSE 100 is little changed and the DAX is little changed.
Economic calendar:
8:30 am Employment Situation: The August jobs report is expected to show nonfarm payroll additions of 55,000 for the month, a 4.1% unemployment rate, and 3.0% year-over-year wage growth.
It is officially just 60 days before the U.S. midterm elections, which some analysts indicate is the beginning of the window when investment managers start making election-related portfolio changes.
Be sure to take the Seeking Alpha weekly news quiz.
Editor's Note: This article discusses one or more securities that do not trade on a major U.S. exchange. Please be aware of the risks associated with these stocks.
Elon Musk said Tesla's self-driving tech could save your life. Now one insurer has looked at the crash data and decided to put real money behind that claim, and the number they landed on is turning heads across the industry.
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.
On August 30, Elon Musk told his followers on X: “Try Tesla self-driving. It will improve your quality of life and may save your life.” Three days later, the company that would actually cut the checks when a Tesla crashes put a number on that claim.
Lemonade (NYSE:LMND) launched Lemonade Car and Lemonade Autonomous Car in Missouri on September 2, 2026, offering Tesla drivers 50% off every mile driven using Full Self-Driving (Supervised). The discount applies only to autonomous miles, with human-driven segments priced at standard rates.
President and Co-Founder Shai Wininger called the dual product debut “a first for us,” and framed the discount as underwriting math: “Tesla’s safe FSD (Supervised) tech reduces the chances of getting into an accident. Our intelligent pricing models see this in the data and can pass real savings, with high precision, on to Tesla customers, right from the start.”
Actuarial Table Meets Autopilot I’ve been watching Lemonade for years, and this is the first time I’ve seen a carrier publicly grade a founder’s safety pitch in dollars. On the Q2 call, management said the discount is not a marketing round number: “The 50% number that we’ve quoted is really our number data driven through the data that we’ve analyzed as we put that product together.” They added that “the public numbers we’re seeing are that amount of savings or greater.”
The autonomous product rolled out in Colorado and Indiana before Missouri. Lemonade said the autonomous variant is launching with ~70% higher new customer conversion rates vs comparable non-autonomous product.
Rapid State Expansion Missouri is the third state announcement in barely a week. Lemonade launched car insurance in Florida on August 26 and expanded renters into Kansas on September 1. Car insurance in-force premium hit $239M in Q2 2026, up from $239M in Q2 2026, up from $239M in Q2 2026, up from $239M in Q2 2026, up from $150M50M50M50M a year earlier.
CEO Daniel Schreiber describes the pricing engine as “some 50” machine-learning algorithms working in concert. Q2 revenue rose 79.4% to $294.4M, and the LAE ratio hit 5%, versus an industry average around 9%. Schreiber told analysts: “That kind of structural advantage allows us to produce a pricing advantage that will allow us to continue to grow and take market share.”
Stock Doesn’t Believe It Yet Shares have lagged. LMND closed at $51.34 on September 1, down 28% year to date, then popped 3.4% on September 2. Schreiber has staked his credibility on a date: “We steadily progress towards our first Adj. EBITDA positive quarter, which we continue to expect in Q4 2026.”
If FSD miles really do crash half as often, Lemonade gets to price the road ahead before legacy carriers even reprice yesterday. If the model misfires, Lemonade is the one writing the check. Musk made the pitch. Lemonade just made it a line item.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Ross Gerber, President and CEO of Gerber Kawasaki says given the various pieces of businesses under Tesla and SpaceX respectively, investors would love one investment that has all the businesses "in one pot".
Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) has published an interest form inviting businesses to buy Cybercab fleets or provide supporting infrastructure for its robotaxi network, signalling that the company's ambitions extend beyond running the service itself.
The form went live ahead of Tesla's Cybercab event in Austin. It stops short of confirming Tesla will sell its autonomous vehicles to outside operators, but points clearly toward where the company's longer-term strategy is heading... and suggests Tesla no longer wants to scale the network alone.
From owner-operators to in-house fleet
The shift marks a departure from Musk's original robotaxi vision. As far back as 2016, he described a future in which individual Tesla owners would earn money renting out their self-driving cars. That idea persisted for years; at the company's 2019 Autonomy Day, Musk said owners would be able to add their vehicles to a ride-hailing app modelled on Uber. By 2020 he was predicting Tesla robotaxis would be running within a year, "not in all jurisdictions," pending regulatory approval.
None of that materialised. Tesla instead built and now operates its own robotaxi fleet, initially using Model Y vehicles and now the purpose-built Cybercab.
Third parties invited in
Until this week, Tesla had kept the robotaxi business firmly in-house. The new form — which the company says will help build out its network — indicates a change of approach, opening the door to third parties. Exactly what role they might play remains undefined: applicants are asked to select from options including Cybercab fleet purchases, mobility hub and infrastructure support, event collaboration, or "other."
Competition already building
Tesla's move comes as rivals establish themselves in robotaxi fleet management. Moove, an African fintech that began in ride-hailing vehicle financing, is expanding into autonomous fleet operations. The startup raised $250 million last month at a $2.1 billion valuation and already manages Waymo's fleets in Phoenix, Miami and Las Vegas, with London operations planned. Moove does not yet own the Waymo vehicles it operates, though its chief executive has said that is the intention.
Tesla said the Cybercab, a self-driving car with no steering wheel or pedals, is now available for public rides in Austin. Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images Tesla added its two-door, steering-wheel-free Cybercab to its robotaxi network on Thursday, offering its first rides to the public in Austin as the company races to expand its autonomous ride-hailing service.
At an invite-only event in downtown Austin, Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla's VP of AI, announced that the Cybercab was officially added to the company's public robotaxi fleet, which, up until now, consisted only of Tesla Model Ys.
"You can go outside, take rides," he said, closing out the Thursday keynote. "Anyone can take rides. It's open to the entire public."
Tesla didn't provide details on the initial size of the public Cybercab fleet. Records from the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles show that Tesla has registered 45 Cybercabs as of Thursday.
The Cybercab is Tesla's purpose-built robotaxi that can fit two passengers. Like Amazon's Zoox, the Cybercab is not built with a steering wheel or pedal.
What we learned from the Tesla 'company update'
Videos posted online by Tesla influencers and content creators who were invited to the Austin event showed that the Cybercab can be hailed through the Robotaxi app.
In a video posted by David Moss, an autonomous-vehicle content creator, Robotaxi users could open the car's butterfly doors through the app. After the riders enter the car, the doors closed automatically, Moss said in the video.
The launch comes nearly two years after Tesla first unveiled the Cybercab at its "We, Robot" event in Burbank, California.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has pitched the vehicle as the company's answer to a low-cost robotaxi that can be produced at scale. Musk has said that the car will cost under $30,000.
Part of Tesla's goal is to allow consumers to buy a Cybercab while also integrating it into the Robotaxi fleet. Ahead of the event on Thursday, Tesla put up an online interest form where people can indicate their interest in "Cybercab fleet vehicle purchasing."
Tesla could face regulatory headwinds in order to sell a vehicle with no steering wheels or pedals for the mass market. While there's no blanket federal ban on such cars, Tesla would need to certify that the Cybercab complies with applicable federal safety standards — or seek temporary exemptions — before selling it to consumers.
A Tesla spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Have a tip on Tesla? Contact this reporter via email at [email protected] or Signal at lloydlee.71. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.
Read next
Lloyd Lee You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email.
Tesla (TSLA +5.42%) is on a roll when it comes to market-moving announcements.
Last month, the EV maker announced the sale of 500 Tesla Semis to Swedish transportation company Einride AB (ENRD -2.24%), essentially tripling the truck's lifetime volumes. The move signaled strength not only for Tesla's emerging trucking platform, but also for its autonomous driving technology, which has the potential to address a growing labor shortage for trucking companies.
On Sept. 3, an even bigger catalyst for Tesla's self-driving ambitions was revealed: the official launch of the company's long-awaited Cybercab.
The vehicle's design may be surprising to some. There is no steering wheel and no pedal. The vehicle is expected to navigate itself exclusively using cameras and artificial intelligence.
Tesla stock surged in value in the hours leading up to the event. How should investors be viewing the Cybercab launch? There are two factors to keep in mind.
Premium Feature
Moneyball Superscore
65/100
Today's Change
(
5.42
%) $
19.36
Current Price
$
376.37
1. Robotaxis are already a big part of Tesla's valuationCathie Wood -- the CEO of Ark Invest, a major Tesla shareholder for nearly a decade -- has been telling investors about the growth potential of Tesla's robotaxi division for years. Her firm began purchasing Tesla stock in 2016 at just $13 per share. Ark Invest now owns more than $1 billion of Tesla stock.
"We think $8 trillion to $10 trillion for the entire autonomous taxi opportunity throughout the world, from almost nothing," Wood predicted over a year ago, referring to how large the robotaxi market could eventually become. "That's how quickly AI is going to cause these things to happen," she stressed.
Looking at Tesla's valuation, it's clear that the market is already pricing in plenty of growth potential. While Tesla's car sales have stabilized, volumes fell year-over-year in both 2024 and 2025. Trading at 13 times sales -- a healthy premium to every other EV stock -- investors aren't necessarily buying into something the market doesn't already know about.
Image source: The White House
2. Robotaxi growth could be lower than Elon Musk's projectionsRegardless of the stock's current valuation, I am a big fan of Tesla's ability to compete aggressively in the nascent robotaxi industry.
The company's biggest advantage is its vertical integration. Some analysts believe Tesla will be able to produce Cybercabs at an all-in cost of $18,000. Competing services, meanwhile, are paying more than $100,000 per vehicle. As one industry insider concluded, "For the same capital outlay, Tesla could deploy nearly seven times as many vehicles."
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is telling investors to expect big things. But his predictions have typically proven overly optimistic.
"I think we'll probably have autonomous ride hailing in probably half the population of the U.S. by the end of the year. That's at least our goal subject to regulatory approvals," Musk said in 2025. That goal was never reached. A few months later, Musk predicted to Tesla's robotaxis would have "no safety driver by end of year." That, too, never came to pass.
To be clear, Tesla perhaps has an unrivaled ability to scale its robotaxi network given how vertically integrated its business is. The company added 45 Cybercabs to its Austin, Texas, network before its latest Cybercab event in a show of force.
But Tesla doesn't completely control its growth trajectory. Regulators will ultimately dictate how quickly the service can scale publicly. So while Tesla may be ready to scale from an internal perspective, investors should remember that growth rates will be determined by many exogenous forces, not just Musk's private opinions.
U.S. auto safety agency NHTSA is evaluating Tesla's rollout of Cybercab robotaxis, a spokesperson said on Thursday, as the electric vehicle maker started offering rides in limited areas of Austin, Texas.
The Cybercab is a two-seater autonomous vehicle without a steering wheel, pedals or mirrors - features that federal safety norms typically require.
"NHTSA is in contact with Tesla and is evaluating the situation," the spokesperson for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration told Reuters, without offering further details.
Tesla TSLA investors got another reason to focus on the company's best-selling Model Y after new EPA estimates showed the Model Y L can travel farther on a charge than Tesla originally advertised. Shares jumped more than 7% Thursday as the improved range added another positive catalyst for a stock already drawing attention ahead of Tesla's Cybercab push.
The difference is modest in absolute terms, but potentially meaningful in a fiercely competitive EV market where range remains one of the most visible specifications consumers compare.
Tesla originally estimated that the Model Y L with 19-inch wheels would deliver 325 miles of range. The EPA now rates that configuration at 332 miles, an improvement of seven miles.
The version equipped with 20-inch wheels received a similar boost. Tesla initially projected 320 miles, while the EPA estimate came in at 328 miles.
That gives Tesla another marketing advantage for a vehicle that remains central to its global volume strategy.
Longer EPA-rated range can help reduce consumer concerns around charging frequency and make the Model Y L more competitive against increasingly capable electric SUVs from both U.S. and Chinese manufacturers.
The stock reaction also comes as investors remain focused on Tesla's broader transition toward autonomy. Tesla shares were already attracting attention ahead of the company's Cybercab reveal, where StoneX analyst Mickey Legg maintained a Buy rating and $475 price target, arguing that the autonomous vehicle could become an important part of Tesla's push into lower-cost, higher-margin transportation services.
What Tesla investors should watch nextThe EPA revision alone is unlikely to transform Tesla's earnings outlook, but it strengthens the competitiveness of one of the company's most important products.
Investors should watch Model Y L orders, pricing, incentives and delivery growth to see whether the improved range translates into stronger demand.
The larger stock catalyst remains autonomy. Tesla's valuation increasingly depends not only on selling more vehicles but on proving that Cybercab and Full Self-Driving can create scalable recurring revenue.
For now, the improved Model Y L range gives Tesla a useful near-term product win while investors wait for much bigger answers from its robotaxi strategy.
