Tesla shares fell 6% on Friday after Wall Street analysts said the company's Cybercab update gave the stock market little new information on pricing or rollout plans. The drop came alongside a separate federal audit into whether the robotaxi meets US safety standards.
Analysts call the event underwhelming
Tesla stock slid 6% on Friday, a day after the company held an invite-only Cybercab event in Austin, Texas, that was not livestreamed and that CEO Elon Musk did not attend. Analysts at RBC Capital Markets wrote that Tesla offered limited new incremental disclosure relative to prior announcements, with questions on pricing, production cadence and regulatory approvals still open.
Even so, RBC's analysts recommend buying Tesla shares. Wells Fargo took a sharper line, titling its note on the event "TSLA Cybercab Launch Event Underwhelms", and said the company's Austin robotaxi service is facing early execution issues. Users have posted videos and complaints about routing errors, missed destinations and long wait or drive times.
A muted follow-up to Thursday's launch
Tesla first showed off the Cybercab almost two years ago, and the two-seat, steering-wheel-free robotaxi has been in production since April. Thursday's event let users of the Tesla Robotaxi app catch a driverless trip in a Cybercab within a geofenced area around Austin, but it lacked the theatrics of past Tesla product reveals.
Friday's decline follows a 5.4% gain on Thursday ahead of the event.
Regulators open a parallel inquiry
Hours after the Austin rollout, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an audit inquiry into Tesla's Cybercab certification. The agency will examine Tesla's technical data and self-certification process rather than rule on the vehicle's safety directly, and it has not ordered a halt to deployments.
The Cybercab lacks a steering wheel, pedals and side mirrors, features current federal standards otherwise require, and Texas DMV records list 45 Cybercabs registered to Tesla so far. NHTSA granted Amazon-owned Zoox a temporary exemption for its own steering-wheel-free robotaxi in July, and Tesla is not the first company to confront the full-autonomy regulatory challenge.
Sources: CNBC, Business Insider
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