Investors were left with more questions than answers, it seems, following Tesla’s (TSLA) “We, Robot” robotaxi event on Thursday night.
CEO Elon Musk unveiled a fully autonomous Cybercab from the Warner Bros. Studios lot in Los Angeles, a vehicle with design nods to the EV maker’s Cybertruck. The Cybercab is slated for a 2026 or thereabouts production date, with a promised $30K price tag. Musk also showed off a fully autonomous Robovan that’s aimed at transporting cargo or up to 20 people.
The reveal was more of a Hollywood entertainment event (with 1950s-era set and Tesla-specific movie posters) than product showcase, and while Tesla fans enjoyed rides in the vehicles and drinks made by Tesla’s Optimus robot, investors and Wall Street analysts were less enthused. The company’s stock was down over 7% on Friday.
“Overall, we found Tesla’s Robotaxi event to be underwhelming and stunningly absent on detail,” noted Tesla bear Toni Sacconaghi of Bernstein on Friday. “While Musk articulated his vision for an autonomous world, it offered little beyond what he has articulated repeatedly over the last few years.“
Sacconaghi complained that details on the new product offerings and timeframes were missing. In particular, details about a path toward regulatory approval for robotaxis, FSD (full self-driving) compatibility with Tesla’s existing EV fleet, safety measures, and central monitoring of a robotaxi fleet were lacking.
Read more: Tesla stock sinks as ‘toothless’ robotaxi disappoints
Sacconaghi felt Tesla would have a hard time leapfrogging other robotaxi competitors — like Waymo and Cruise — for regulatory and technical reasons. In addition, the lack of any details, or even a rendering of the upcoming sub-$30K Tesla EV, dubbed the Model 2, was also a disappointment.
Bernstein and Sacconaghi maintained their Underperform rating and $120 price target following the event.
A lack of detail disappointed Tesla bulls like Adam Jonas of Morgan Stanley as well.
“Heading into what might arguably have been the most highly anticipated product unveil in Tesla’s history, we had a number of expectations of what the market might learn that we felt were consequential to the direction and debate around the stock,” Jonas wrote in a note to clients Friday morning. “We were overall disappointed with the substance and detail of the presentation.”
Specifically with the Cybercab, there was no detailed discussion of technology aspects like sensors, range, safety features, and configurations (seating, for example), Jonas said.
Furthermore, like Sacconaghi, Jonas pointed out a lack of detail regarding improvements to FSD, a detailed rollout plan for robotaxis to consumers, and financial analysis, among other things.
Jonas maintained his Overweight rating and $310 price target, but fully expected the stock to be under pressure on Friday.
But not all analysts walked away disappointed. Bank of America’s John Murphy came away impressed with the event, claiming that it “lived up to the hype.”
Murphy was satisfied with details given at the event, namely target dates like the 2026 timeline for the Cybercab production (which Murphy did find “optimistic”), a potential starting price of $30,000, and unsupervised (meaning no employee in the driver’s seat) FSD testing coming next year in Texas and California.
Murphy was also impressed by the Optimus robot demonstrations after the main event and their significance to the overall Tesla story.
“Although the financial ramifications of these potential new products are unclear, AI and robotics could be a major development path for Tesla over the next decade,” Murphy said, adding that he was impressed by Musk’s commentary that the Cybercab had distributed computing power that could be harnessed for other tasks and that Tesla was designing its own in-house microchip, the A5, that would power both the Cybercab and Optimus.
Nevertheless, with today’s drop Tesla stock is now down around 11% for the year, with the S&P 500 up nearly 22%. Tesla will have its next chance to close the gap with the benchmark index when the company reports earnings after the bell on Oct. 23.
Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.
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