Tesla and Chief Executive Elon Musk are reportedly set to launch the limited robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, on June 12. However, a longtime Tesla stock bull on Friday told investors to temper expectations even as TSLA shares have moved higher on excitement around the robotaxi service.
A Friday research note from Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas on Friday pointed out a publicity campaign on Musk's social media platform X around the Austin robotaxi day. Bloomberg reported Wednesday that Tesla would launch the limited robotaxi service on June 12, citing a person familiar with the matter as its source.
"As is typical for highly anticipated Tesla events, we would keep expectations well contained for the (reported) June 12th Cybercab launch event in Austin," Jonas wrote Friday.
"However, we would look for a continued stream of updates for the performance and growth of the network thereafter (numbers of cars, miles, trips, etc.) in the days and weeks that follow," he added.
Tesla stock fell 3.3% to 346.46 during Friday's stock market. Shares advanced as high as 367.71 in Thursday's intraday stock market action, before closing up 0.4% to 358.43. TSLA finished Friday up 2.1% on the week, giving it a 22.8% gain in May. Shares are above a 354.99 buy point.
Cathie Wood and Ark Invest trimmed Tesla stock holdings in consecutive stock market sessions this week.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump announced at 1:30 p.m. ET that Musk is officially departing from his current role within the Trump administration.
Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives wrote Friday that this is "music to the ears of Tesla shareholders with a crucial few months ahead."
"While Trump mentioned that Musk will stay on as an advisor, we believe that Musk's days in politics are essentially over after this experiment that clearly morphed into brand damage for Tesla and took on a life of its own," Ives said.
The Robotaxi Rollout
With June fast approaching, a somewhat clearer image is taking shape of what the Tesla robotaxi rollout will look like.
The Bloomberg report included that Tesla tested a Model Y with no one in the driver's seat for the first time this week. Musk on X early Thursday wrote that "Tesla has been testing self-driving Model Y cars (no one in the driver's seat) on Austin public streets with no incidents" in recent days.
"Next month, first self-delivery from factory to customer," Musk wrote.
The Friday comment from Jonas comes after the analyst recently met with Tesla executives. On May 16, Jonas wrote that the robotaxi service will likely be around 10 to 20 cars, on public roads and be invite-only with plenty of tele-ops to ensure safety levels.
Meanwhile, Musk, speaking with CNBC last week, said there will be about 10 robotaxi Model Ys in the first week and that there could be 1,000 units in a "few months." At the time, Musk did not give a specific date for the rollout, but said it would come before end of June.
The Tesla chief also confirmed there will be human supervisors for the autonomous trips. Musk also said the robotaxi service will be geofenced, meaning portions of Austin will be unavailable.
Elon Musk Says He Will Remain Tesla's CEO For At Least Five More Years
During the first-quarter earnings call in April, Musk also made it clear during that call that the robotaxi vehicles in Austin will be Model Ys.
"We expect to be selling fully autonomous rides in Austin in June," Musk said. "The team and I are laser focused on bringing robotaxi in Austin in June." He added that "unsupervised autonomy will first be solved for the Model Y in Austin."
Separately, the CyberCab product is on track for production next year, according to Tesla. The CyberCab will use the "unboxed" manufacturing system (a modular approach). Tesla executives said on the company's first-quarter earnings call that the unboxed process is "progressing," suggesting it's not yet ready.
Tesla Robotaxi Launches In A Few Weeks. These Are The Details.
Tesla Stock Performance
Stock market trading on May 9 sent Tesla shares rallying above the 200-day moving average, offering investors an aggressive entry. Shares are still down about 14% this year, despite surging on robotaxi bets following the April 22 Q1 conference call. Shares are around 29% below their 488.54 peak on Dec. 18.
"We've lost some sales perhaps on the left but we've gained them on the right," Musk said in an interview May 20 at Bloomberg's Qatar Economic Forum in Abu Dhabi, referring to consumers on the political right and left.
"The sales numbers at this point are strong and we see no problem with demand," Musk said, adding that TSLA stock is evidence that Tesla EV sales are doing well.
"Our stock wouldn't be trading near all-time highs if things weren't in good shape, they're fine, don't worry about it," Musk said.
Troy Teslike posted to X last week that he expects Q2 vehicle deliveries between 350,000-395,000, or marking about a 11%-20% decrease vs. a year ago. For the full year, Teslike expects Tesla vehicle deliveries to decline more than 16%.
Tesla stock has a 21-day average true range of 4.50%. The ATR metric, available on IBD's MarketSurge charting tool, gauges the characteristic breadth of a stock's behavior. Stocks that tend to make large jumps or dives in daily stock market action, the kind that can trigger sell rules and shake investors out of a stock, have a high ATR. Stocks that tend to make more incremental moves have lower ATRs.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq are now in a power trend. Investors can buy stocks with ATRs up to 8%, though they should be wary of being too concentrated in high-octane names.
Tesla stock has an 83 Composite Rating out of a best-possible 99. The stock also has a 95 Relative Strength Rating and a 58 EPS Rating.
Please follow Kit Norton on X @KitNorton for more coverage.
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