Investors Seem Unimpressed With Tesla's Robotaxi Reveal

Elon Musk hyped Tesla's driverless Cybercab prototype at a splashy "We, Robot" event in Hollywood, but investors appear to be less than impressed, as shares of the electric vehicle maker fell in early trading on Friday.

Tesla's stock (TSLA) was down about 9% just after the market opened on Friday.

Musk, Tesla's CEO, unveiled the two-seat robotaxi without a steering wheel or pedals at the Warner Bros. studio in Burbank on Thursday.

Musk said it would be the first of a fleet of autonomous vehicles and robots.

The company plans to begin producing Cybercabs before 2027, that consumers would be able to buy for under $30,000 and Musk predicted they would turn "parking lots into parks," the Wall Street Journal reported.

Musk also said he expects Tesla to have "unsupervised FSD," or Full Self-Driving, operating in Texas and California next year in its Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.

Analysts at Barclays said Musk was long on promises but short on details.

"As expected, like prior Tesla product unveils, the event was light on the details, and instead emphasized the vision underpinning Tesla's growth endeavors in AI/AV [autonomous vehicles]," Barclays' U.S. autos and mobility team wrote in the note early on Friday, CNBC reported.

"Yet there were no updates indicating near-term opportunities. Tesla didn't show its low-cost model planned for 1H′25 production," they continued. "We also didn't get any near-term updates on FSD progress, or data reflecting improvement in the system."

Analysts at Piper Sandler in a note said that "most trading-oriented firms will be underwhelmed by the robo-taxi unveiling."

"We wouldn't be surprised if the stock sells off in the coming weeks, as pre-event momentum fizzles," the investment bank's analysts said in the note, CNBC reported.