Tesla’s upcoming robotaxi event has analysts and investors guessing

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) is less than one month from its high-profile robotaxi event that has been delayed once already.

Morgan Stanley warned that Tesla’s (TSLA) robotaxi event on October 10 could fail to live up to the high expectations of investors. Analyst Adam Jonas said that other than demonstrating FSD v12.5 and offering rides in a Gen 1 Cybercab, the firm is not sure what else could be in store.

Jonas said questions that could be addressed include will investors see data comparing the safety of Tesla’s (TSLA) AV vehicle technology compared to human driving, and what are the specific critical enabling technologies to drive further improvement in FSD/cybercab autonomy?

As far as moonshots, Jonas teased previously that Tesla (TSLA) could introduce an electric plane concept, electric boat vision, or a demonstration of an Optimus robot flipping burgers at a Tesla Diner. Other Wall Street analysts are also predicting some long-term autonomous concepts will be teased.

One of the biggest wildcards regarding Tesla (TSLA) trying to live up to its autonomous vision is AI execution, according to Jonas. “Tesla’s future valuation is highly dependent on its ability to develop, manufacture and commercialize autonomous technologies, ranging from transportation to humanoid,” he reminded. On the positive side, Tesla’s (TSLA) goals align with what NVIDIA (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang has said about a robotic future. Huang argued earlier in the year that everything that moves will be autonomous one day, including factories. A negative consideration is the balancing act between AI infrastructure costs, training/simulation costs, and potential conflicts with Musk’s xAI. The aggressive jump by Alphabet’s (GOOG) Waymo and positioning by Uber Technologies (UBER) are also new factors in the robotaxi race.

Shares of Tesla (TSLA) were up 1.96% at 2:05 p.m. on Wednesday and are now only down 7.32% on a year-to-date basis. Notably, shares of Ferrari (RACE), General Motors (GM), Honda Motor (HMC), and Toyota Motor (TM) are all higher for the year.