Tesla’s stock went up by almost 5% on Monday because of what CEO Elon Musk said. He announced that Tesla will show its robotaxi on August 8.
Musk made this announcement on Friday after a Reuters report said Tesla wouldn’t make a new electric car that was supposed to cost less than $30,000. Some people called it the Model 2.
Instead, Tesla will focus on making a self-driving robot. Musk said Reuters was lying about canceling the Model 2 and then later confirmed that Tesla would reveal the robotaxi. This robotaxi is expected to have no steering wheel or pedals. But we still don’t know if Tesla will ever release a low-cost electric car.
Even though Tesla’s stock went up, not everyone on Wall Street is sure about this announcement.
Emmanuel Rosner from Deutsche Bank thinks the news about the robotaxi is a big change for Tesla. He said if Tesla really won’t make the Model 2 and focuses on the robotaxi instead, it could be good because Tesla’s technology for self-driving cars is really advanced. But others are worried that Tesla is giving up on the Model 2, which many people thought would help Tesla sell more cars and make more money.
Tasha Keeney from ARK Invest, who is a big fan of Tesla, thinks Tesla’s future depends a lot on self-driving cars. She says Tesla has more data than any other company working on self-driving cars, which is really important for making them work well. Keeney believes Tesla is close to making fully self-driving cars because they are gathering a lot of data from their cars every day.
But Craig Irwin from Roth Capital is not so sure about Tesla’s robotaxi. He thinks the recent jump in Tesla’s stock price is just because of excitement and not because Tesla’s business is doing better. He thinks Tesla still has a long way to go to make fully self-driving cars. Irwin says Tesla’s cars need better sensors and cameras to be able to drive themselves completely. He also thinks Tesla has other problems, like not selling enough cars and facing tough competition.
So, while some people are excited about Tesla’s plans for robotaxis, others think Tesla still has a lot of work to do.
