Shares of Elon Musk’s Tesla popped 10% on Monday following the debut of its self-driving “Robotaxi” fleet — the first major test of technology that the billionaire has promised will transform the company’s business.
Tesla shares were trading at about $354 per share as a handpicked group of influencers who participated in the trial run in Austin, Texas, on Sunday uploaded positive reviews on X and other social media platforms.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, a Tesla bull, said he participated in a test drive that “exceeded our expectations” for the fledgling technology.
Ives maintained his “outperform” rating for Tesla’s stock and a $500 price target.
“Going into it, we expected to be impressed but walking away from it, all there is to say is that this is the future,” Ives said in a note to clients.
Ives said he took two approximately 15-minute rides around Austin.
“The ride itself was completely smooth, and it was indistinguishable that the car was driverless as there was never a moment in the vehicle where we felt as if it did something irrational,” Ives said.
The Tesla safety monitors “were not permitted to comment on anything nor did they influence the car in any way,” he added.
The electric car maker began offering driverless rides by invitation only on Sunday, with riders charged a $4.20 flat fee — a cheeky not to marijuana use. About 10 driverless Tesla Model Y SUVs were reportedly on the road, with company “safety monitors” on board in the front seat to oversee the trips.
Bearded Tesla Guy, a social media influencer, compared the experience to “basically Uber.”
Farzad Mesbahi, a former Tesla employee-turned influencer, said his rides were “very smooth and comfortable.”
“Now Tesla needs to scale this service safely,” Mesbahi said on X. “As long as the system performance holds, they should be able to cover the US with Robotaxis virtually overnight.”
Robotaxi is set to directly compete with Google-owned Waymo and Amazon-backed Zoox in the autonomous vehicle market.
Musk had earlier shared “super congratulations to the @Tesla_AI software & chip design teams on a successful @Robotaxi launch!!”
“Culmination of a decade of hard work. Both the AI chip and software teams were built from scratch within Tesla,” Musk wrote on X.
Invitations circulated by Tesla said the initial Robotaxi service would be available from 6:00 AM to 12:00 AM local time and limited to a geofenced area, meaning anything outside the pre-set boundaries would be off-limits.
Tesla also said Robotaxi service would be limited or unavailable in the event of bad weather.
Musk has long touted the potential of Tesla’s “Full Self Driving” technology, though federal regulators and other critics have repeatedly raised safety concerns.
He has suggested that autonomous driving technology can add $5 trillion to $10 trillion to Tesla’s market capitalization by transforming its vehicles into an instant productive fleet.
The billionaire had said the Robotaxi rollout was limited because Tesla was “being super paranoid about safety.”
The debut occurred at a critical time for Tesla, whose shares have been under pressure since Musk embarked on his controversial work with President Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency.
Musk and Trump had a very public falling-out earlier this month, though the two have since appeared to mend fences.
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