Tesla unveiled the CyberCab on October 10, 2024 in Burbank, California.
Source: Tesla
tesla Shares closed nearly 9% lower on Friday after the electric car company’s long-awaited robotaxi event failed to impress investors.
CEO Elon Musk unveiled the company’s self-driving concept car, the CyberCab, a short, silver two-seater with no steering wheel or pedals, at the company’s “We, Robot” event Thursday night. Announcing a fleet of autonomous vehicles and robots.
Musk said the company wants to produce the CyberCab by 2027, but did not provide details on where it would be built. He said consumers will be able to purchase a Tesla CyberCab for less than $30,000.
He also said he expects Tesla to roll out “unsupervised FSD” in its Model 3 and Model Y electric cars in Texas and California next year. FSD, which stands for Full Self-Driving, is Tesla’s premium driver assistance system and is currently available in a “supervised” version for Tesla electric vehicles.
The technology still requires a human driver at the wheel and the ability to steer and brake at any time.
With Friday’s closing price of $217.80, Tesla stock has fallen 12% since the beginning of the year and 17% over the past 12 months.
“Pre-event momentum stalls.”
In addition to the CyberCab, Musk also announced plans to produce an autonomous electric robovan that can carry up to 20 people and transport goods. “Densification is the solution,” for example in transporting sports teams, he said.
After the event, Jefferies analysts released a note titled “We were blown away.”
Barclays analysts said the revelations did not highlight near-term opportunities for Tesla and instead prioritized Musk’s vision for a fully self-driving future.
“As expected, like previous Tesla product launches, this event did not focus on the details, instead emphasizing the vision that underpins Tesla’s growth efforts in AI/AV. [autonomous vehicles]” wrote Barclays analysts.
They added that the public “did not have access to short-term updates on FSD progress or data reflecting system improvements.”
“Many trading-focused companies will be overwhelmed by the robotaxi announcement,” Piper Sandler analysts wrote in a report.
“We wouldn’t be surprised if the stock sells off in the coming weeks as pre-event momentum disappears,” analysts said.
Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley analysts said Musk failed to make the case that Tesla is an artificial intelligence company during the event. Analysts noted that Musk did not provide any details about improvements to Tesla’s FSD system or about Tesla’s rumored partnership plans with Musk’s AI company xAI.
Morgan Stanley analysts wrote that the event “disappointed across the board in a number of areas, including FSD/technology rate of change, rideshare economics, and go-to-market strategy.”
“We were overall disappointed with the content and detail of the presentation,” they added. “As such, we expect TSLA to be under pressure following the event.”
What has become clear after this incident is that it will be years before Tesla can put self-driving cars on public roads, and that regulators will consider many concerns about the safety features built into the vehicles. It means there is a need.
Forrester analyst Paul Miller told CNBC in an email that the $30,000 CyberCab isn’t coming soon.
“It would be extremely difficult for Tesla to offer a new car at that price in that time frame,” Miller said. “Economies of scale could ultimately allow the company to bring costs down to nearly $30,000. If there were no external subsidies or Tesla wasn’t losing money on all of its vehicles, It doesn’t seem realistic to release it at anything close to that price.”
of the alphabet Waymo has been offering its robo-taxi service to the public since June, and is one of the few companies to successfully put self-driving cars on public roads.
