News
Tesla critic Jim Cramer turns into full-on bull: ‘TSLA has all the ingredients of a winner’
Tesla has a new convert as tough critic Jim Cramer of CNBC’s Mad Money turns from an agnostic skeptic to an outright bull on the electric carmaker’s stock (NASDAQ:TSLA). The Mad Money host declared that he is now a true believer in Tesla, which he classifies as a battleground stock.
“All my career I have been fascinated by companies with vociferous bulls and ferocious bears, if only because they can be so entertaining,” Cramer said.
For the uninitiated, battleground stocks are those that attract strong, polarizing opinions from different sides. “First, they are cultish, meaning that there are people who love the product, not the earnings and the product transcends simple analysis. You can’t put a price to earnings ratio on cool, on but you might buy cool and therefore want to buy the stock. That had been my stance for years on Tesla,” said Cramer.
Cramer shared a story of how his wife and daughter helped convinced him to believe in Tesla. About three months ago, his daughter drove a Model 3 from Oregon to San Francisco. Within 100 miles of the 600-mile trip, he was surprised to get a call from his daughter, who was raving about how it was nice being behind the wheel of the electric vehicle. His daughter told him to “buy one.”
On another occasion, Cramer was with his wife and they tried a Model X following an endorsement from another couple. He confessed that he adored the Falcon Wing doors and the quality of the drive. Cramer’s wife also convinced him to buy Tesla’s Solar Roof. The unveiling of the Tesla Cybertruck also caught the attention of Cramer. While he labeled the press conference as close to a disaster following the vehicle’s failed “Armor Glass” demo, the demand following the unveiling of the all-electric pickup truck stunned the TV personality.
The second issue, according to Cramer, about battleground stocks is their financials. “The really Verdun-like slugfests tend to have terrible balance sheets, ones that can’t be fixed by simple operating earnings and instead need genuine manna from heaven to cure themselves of the concerns,” Cramer said.
However, he consulted one of the most skeptical CFOs in the world, who said this about Tesla. “The company could raise two billion dollars in a heartbeat,” he said. Cramer took note of how even TSLA bears recognize that Tesla may have a breakout as soon as next year.
Lastly, the former hedge fund manager considered how battleground stocks tend to have charismatic leaders.
The Mad Money host weighed in how Tesla CEO Elon Musk fascinates him. “He’s a walking charisma machine, alternately entertaining and fun-loving and critical to the point of scathing, like someone else I know, yours truly. Sometimes I think he gives me a run for my money as the most sincerely insincere man in North America, other times he’s just a worldwide true believer,” he said.
Cramer dislikes Musk for tweeting like crazy and how the Tesla CEO taunted analysts, though he stated that he has since tempered down his stance. “All of that ended though when he agreed as part of some weirdo SEC ruling to stop the incendiary tweeting and, on the last conference call he revealed his true rigor without the sardonic quips. That made me realize that he will have no problem negotiating with either the Chinese government for his Gigafactory built in record time or the coming gargantuan German factory for that matter,” Cramer noted.
To end, the Mad Money host summarized his points, “So, cult product? Check. Balance sheet? Check. Leader? Check. If you’re going to invest in a battleground stock, TSLA has all the ingredients of a winner.”
As Cramer announced his conversion to a TSLA believer, others have corroborated his analysis. ARK Invest founder and CEO Catherine Wood foresees Tesla stock to at least double by 2024. “We have our ‘bear price,’ five-year target as $700. That would be if they lost two-thirds of market shares and had no autonomous vehicles,” she said in an interview.
Last month, Canadian businessman and Shark Tank judge Kevin O’Leary, who has also been critical of Tesla stock, also changed his stance and invested in the electric car maker after seeing a potential path to profitability.
TSLA stock has also been showing some strength following the positive reports from China hinting that the deliveries of Made-in-China Model 3 units are imminent. Interest in the Tesla Cybertruck has also remained strong weeks after its unveiling.
On Wednesday, Tesla shares closed at $352.70, gaining 1.11%.
Here’s the full video of the Mad Money segment where host Jim Cramer explained how he became a true believer in Tesla:
Disclosure: I have no ownership in shares of TSLA and have no plans to initiate any positions within 72 hours.
Tesla AI lead Ashok Elluswamy said this week that 24-hour Robotaxi service is close. Replying on X to a rider who wanted Cybercab trips all night, he wrote that the capability would arrive “next month or so” once “the next tech to merge on the v15 plan” is ready.
The comment landed on September 4, one day after Tesla opened public Cybercab rides in Austin. It is the clearest near-term timeline yet for overnight unsupervised operation. Tesla’s paid Robotaxi network currently runs from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week across Austin, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Orlando, and Tampa.
next month or so. the next tech to merge on the v15 plan will enable it.
— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) September 4, 2026
That 16-hour window is shorter than the 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. schedule the company used for much of the prior year.
Elluswamy did not name the specific feature or say whether the change would apply first to purpose-built Cybercabs, the existing Model Y fleet, or both. He also offered no city-by-city rollout list. The link to Full Self-Driving v15 is nevertheless significant.
Tesla has described v15 as a step-change architecture with seven parallel improvement tracks and roughly ten times more parameters than earlier builds. Early versions of that software already operate on the Robotaxi fleet and contain about 40 percent of the planned gains.
By July 2026, the unsupervised fleet had logged more than 380,000 miles across six cities in two states with what the company called an impeccable safety record and no notable incidents caused by the vehicles themselves. Tesla has repeatedly argued that camera-based end-to-end neural networks, rather than extra sensors, are the core of the solution.
Overnight service would test that claim in lower-light conditions and would also raise vehicle utilization, a key variable for Robotaxi unit economics. The company has already begun using public Superchargers at night and is building dedicated Robotaxi charging sites.
Riders have asked why software must change if the cars already drive in the dark. The practical answer appears to be reliability and scale: Tesla has held back mass expansion until more of the v15 stack is merged, citing the need for higher confidence before putting thousands of unoccupied vehicles on streets around the clock.
If the next module arrives on the timetable Elluswamy sketched, 24-hour service could begin in October 2026 in at least some markets.
That would mark a shift from a daytime-bounded pilot to a service that can run whenever demand exists, including the late-night hours that have so far remained out of reach.
Tesla is beginning to roll out Full Self-Driving Supervised v14.3.9 with a new active safety layer that can take control even when the driver is operating the car manually.
Tesla AI said the software can activate FSD on the driver’s behalf when an imminent collision is detected and Automatic Emergency Braking may not be enough. It may also engage if the system detects heavy distraction or an accidental FSD disengagement.
FSD Supervised v14.3.9 starting to roll out shortly
This release includes a new active safety feature set: FSD Supervised can now activate on your behalf when an imminent collision is detected and Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) may not be enough.
It may also engage if we…
— Tesla AI (@Tesla_AI) September 4, 2026
The capability is essentially Automatic Collision Evasion. However, unlike conventional AEB, which mainly applies the brakes in a straight line, this feature can use steering, braking, and acceleration together if the car calculates that stopping alone will not prevent impact and a safer path exists. The system may change lanes or move toward a shoulder when conditions allow, then continue driving after the immediate threat is handled rather than simply coming to a stop.
The intervention is meant as a last-resort safety net, not a replacement for attentive driving.
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.3.7 early review: FSD saved me from an accident
Tesla’s own description still frames FSD as supervised assistance. Secondary reports on internal release notes say the feature can fire while the car is being driven manually if cabin-camera monitoring suggests the driver is not sufficiently attentive, such as reaching toward the back seat, or if FSD appears to have been turned off unintentionally.
After the emergency maneuver, the car is expected to alert the driver and request a return to manual control.
The safety case is straightforward. Many collisions happen in the last second because a driver is looking away, fumbles a control, or faces an obstacle that braking cannot fully solve. A system that can both recognize that AEB is insufficient and execute a coordinated evasive path can reduce those remaining high-severity events.
Re-engaging after accidental disengagement also addresses a practical failure mode: a small steering nudge that drops FSD at the worst moment. The advantage is a background safety net that uses the same vision stack already running in v14, instead of leaving the car solely to emergency braking once the driver is no longer in command.
The feature still depends on FSD being enabled and, according to reports, an active FSD purchase or subscription. It does not make the vehicle unsupervised. Drivers remain responsible, and Tesla has not published how often the system is expected to intervene or how it will handle false positives.
If the rollout is conservative and the false-alarm rate stays low, the update is a meaningful step: FSD is no longer only a feature the driver turns on. In the rare moments when disaster is already forming, it can step in.
Tesla launched the all-electric, steering wheel-less, and pedal-less Cybercab last night at a quiet and small event in downtown Austin, Texas.
The launch, which marked the beginning of unsupervised ride-hailing for Tesla’s Robotaxi platform with Cybercab, has already caught the attention of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) who has more questions.
NHTSA opened an Audit Query (AQ) into the Cybercab’s Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) certification that Tesla gave the vehicle. Manufacturers self-certify vehicles much of the time to avoid excessive regulatory delays.
Tesla Cybercab interior, note the lack of steering wheel and pedals. (Credit: @niccruzpatane/X< /a>)
However, the agency needs more information; it said in a summary:
“On September 3, 2026, Tesla began commercial deployment with a small number of its Cybercab vehicles in Austin, Texas. Tesla notified the Agency that it certified those Cybercab vehicles as compliant with all applicable Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS). Tesla also notified the Agency that it plans to gradually expand commercial deployment of the Cybercab to include additional vehicles and locations.”
It also went on to state that the Cybercab lacks traditional automotive controls, which is a groundbreaking move. The process is entirely new to the NHTSA, which gives the agency some leverage to put Tesla’s launch under a microscope:
“The vehicles lack permanently attached, conventional manual controls, such as a brake pedal, gas pedal, steering wheel, and mirrors. NHTSA is opening this AQ to examine the process and technical data on which Tesla relied when certifying the Cybercab and related issues. Among other things, NHTSA will consider the extent to which Tesla’s certification depended on determinations that certain FMVSS are inapplicable to the Cybercab.”
Tesla has added 45 Cybercab units to its fleet of Robotaxi-enabled cars in Austin, according to public documents the company submitted to the State of Texas over the past week. Enabling this level of self-driving is something Tesla has worked toward for many years, and now that it is finally here, it seems more than reasonable that regulatory agencies will have some questions.
Many outlets might try to frame this as a negative, but it is truly an agency looking to gain more information about groundbreaking tech that Tesla has been developing for years.
In an effort to keep riders, pedestrians, and property safe, any and all data accumulated from these first days, weeks, and months of rides will likely be shared with the NHTSA to enable broader rollout strategies across the United States and more in the future.
Tesla Robotaxi will be a 24/7 service: here’s when
Tesla Full Self-Driving will now overtake manual driving to avoid disaster
