Tesla moves so fast that sometimes, it is difficult to keep track of what the company is doing and accomplishing. This was certainly the case in September, which was a month full of milestones in several of the company’s key programs. It was then quite unsurprising that the electric vehicle maker opted to celebrate its stellar month with an article on X.
As noted by Tesla, the company started September on a strong note, with the Tesla Model S, Model X, Model 3, and Model Y receiving Actually Smart Summon (ASS). The feature allowed FSD-enabled vehicles to navigate parking lots proficiently without a driver. ASS’ release set the stage for several FSD-related landmarks that were rolled out over the month.
https://t.co/6NdFCYAbsp— Tesla (@Tesla) September 30, 2024
Several countries saw notable EV accomplishments during September. In Denmark alone, one in ten cars is now electric, and in Norway, EV sales set a new record by taking up a dominating 94% market share in August. The Model Y led Norway’s sales with 18.8% of the market during the month. The Model Y also became Norway’s best-selling EV with over 60,000 of the all-electric crossovers on the country’s roads.
Tesla’s 4680 program also achieved its 100 millionth cell across all the company’s factories. And over in Germany, the Tesla Semi made a huge impact to the attendees of the IAA Transportation event. PepsiCo, Tesla’s first Semi customer, shared positive reviews of the Class 8 all-electric truck during the IAA Transportation expo.
Semi at IAA + ?? details from @danWpriestley ? pic.twitter.com/pBjMe6grOj— Tesla Europe & Middle East (@teslaeurope) September 17, 2024
New features and sites were also explored by the company, from the release of a Hands-Free Frunk feature for the Cybertruck and new Model S and Model X, to the launch of a store in Lithuania. The Tesla AI team also published an ambitious release roadmap that includes goals such as eye-tracking with sunglasses, end-to-end highway driving, and FSD for the Cybertruck. These goals seemed extremely ambitious, but the Tesla AI team nailed them.
Over the month, the Cybertruck received Autopark, its first FSD-related feature. And at the end of September, the all-electric pickup truck received FSD (Supervised) with end-to-end highway driving and eye-tracking with sunglasses. Initial observations from Cybertruck owners suggest that the all-electric pickup truck’s FSD feature is quite impressive, though the system still needs refinement in some areas as expected.
Cybertruck – now with FSD ? pic.twitter.com/SCR1JLJvtx— Dirty Tesla (@DirtyTesLa) September 30, 2024
Overall, September proved very productive for Tesla, and expectations are high that the next few months will be even busier. In the fourth quarter, after all, the Tesla AI team is looking to release Unpark, Park and Reverse in FSD (Supervised), as well as FSD v13 with ~6x improved miles between necessary interventions. That’s an ambitious goal, though it is one that could very well be feasible considering how hard the Tesla team works.
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Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) closed at an all-time high on Tuesday, jumping over 3 percent during the day and finishing at $489.88.
The price beats the previous record close, which was $479.86.
Shares have had a crazy year, dipping more than 40 percent from the start of the year. The stock then started to recover once again around late April, when its price started to climb back up from the low $200 level.
This week, Tesla started to climb toward its highest levels ever, as it was revealed on Sunday that the company was testing driverless Robotaxis in Austin. The spike in value pushed the company’s valuation to $1.63 trillion.
Tesla Robotaxi goes driverless as Musk confirms Safety Monitor removal testing
It is the seventh-most valuable company on the market currently, trailing Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta.
Shares closed up $14.57 today, up over 3 percent.
The stock has gone through a lot this year, as previously mentioned. Shares tumbled in Q1 due to CEO Elon Musk’s involvement with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which pulled his attention away from his companies and left a major overhang on their valuations.
However, things started to rebound halfway through the year, and as the government started to phase out the $7,500 tax credit, demand spiked as consumers tried to take advantage of it.
Q3 deliveries were the highest in company history, and Tesla responded to the loss of the tax credit with the launch of the Model 3 and Model Y Standard.
Additionally, analysts have announced high expectations this week for the company on Wall Street as Robotaxi continues to be the focus. With autonomy within Tesla’s sights, things are moving in the direction of Robotaxi being a major catalyst for growth on the Street in the coming year.
Elon Musk
Tesla needs to come through on this one Robotaxi metric, analyst says
“We think the key focus from here will be how fast Tesla can scale driverless operations (including if Tesla’s approach to software/hardware allows it to scale significantly faster than competitors, as the company has argued), and on profitability.”
Tesla needs to come through on this one Robotaxi metric, Mark Delaney of Goldman Sachs says.
Tesla is in the process of rolling out its Robotaxi platform to areas outside of Austin and the California Bay Area. It has plans to launch in five additional cities, including Houston, Dallas, Miami, Las Vegas, and Phoenix.
However, the company’s expansion is not what the focus needs to be, according to Delaney. It’s the speed of deployment.
The analyst said:
“We think the key focus from here will be how fast Tesla can scale driverless operations (including if Tesla’s approach to software/hardware allows it to scale significantly faster than competitors, as the company has argued), and on profitability.”
Profitability will come as the Robotaxi fleet expands. Making that money will be dependent on when Tesla can initiate rides in more areas, giving more customers access to the program.
There are some additional things that the company needs to make happen ahead of the major Robotaxi expansion, one of those things is launching driverless rides in Austin, the first city in which it launched the program.
This week, Tesla started testing driverless Robotaxi rides in Austin, as two different Model Y units were spotted with no occupants, a huge step in the company’s plans for the ride-sharing platform.
Tesla Robotaxi goes driverless as Musk confirms Safety Monitor removal testing
CEO Elon Musk has been hoping to remove Safety Monitors from Robotaxis in Austin for several months, first mentioning the plan to have them out by the end of 2025 in September. He confirmed on Sunday that Tesla had officially removed vehicle occupants and started testing truly unsupervised rides.
Although Safety Monitors in Austin have been sitting in the passenger’s seat, they have still had the ability to override things in case of an emergency. After all, the ultimate goal was safety and avoiding any accidents or injuries.
Goldman Sachs reiterated its ‘Neutral’ rating and its $400 price target. Delaney said, “Tesla is making progress with its autonomous technology,” and recent developments make it evident that this is true.
Investor's Corner
Tesla gets bold Robotaxi prediction from Wall Street firm
Last week, Andrew Percoco took over Tesla analysis for Morgan Stanley from Adam Jonas, who covered the stock for years. Percoco seems to be less optimistic and bullish on Tesla shares, while still being fair and balanced in his analysis.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) received a bold Robotaxi prediction from Morgan Stanley, which anticipates a dramatic increase in the size of the company’s autonomous ride-hailing suite in the coming years.
Last week, Andrew Percoco took over Tesla analysis for Morgan Stanley from Adam Jonas, who covered the stock for years. Percoco seems to be less optimistic and bullish on Tesla shares, while still being fair and balanced in his analysis.
Percoco dug into the Robotaxi fleet and its expansion in the coming years in his latest note, released on Tuesday. The firm expects Tesla to increase the Robotaxi fleet size to 1,000 vehicles in 2026. However, that’s small-scale compared to what they expect from Tesla in a decade.
Tesla expands Robotaxi app access once again, this time on a global scale
By 2035, Morgan Stanley believes there will be one million Robotaxis on the road across multiple cities, a major jump and a considerable fleet size. We assume this means the fleet of vehicles Tesla will operate internally, and not including passenger-owned vehicles that could be added through software updates.
He also listed three specific catalysts that investors should pay attention to, as these will represent the company being on track to achieve its Robotaxi dreams:
- Opening Robotaxi to the public without a Safety Monitor. Timing is unclear, but it appears that Tesla is getting closer by the day.
- Improvement in safety metrics without the Safety Monitor. Tesla’s ability to improve its safety metrics as it scales miles driven without the Safety Monitor is imperative as it looks to scale in new states and cities in 2026.
- Cybercab start of production, targeted for April 2026. Tesla’s Cybercab is a purpose-built vehicle (no steering wheel or pedals, only two seats) that is expected to be produced through its state-of-the-art unboxed manufacturing process, offering further cost reductions and thus accelerating adoption over time.
Robotaxi stands to be one of Tesla’s most significant revenue contributors, especially as the company plans to continue expanding its ride-hailing service across the world in the coming years.
Its current deployment strategy is controlled and conservative to avoid any drastic and potentially program-ruining incidents.
So far, the program, which is active in Austin and the California Bay Area, has been widely successful.
Tesla stock closes at all-time high on heels of Robotaxi progress
Tesla needs to come through on this one Robotaxi metric, analyst says
