Wall Street closely watched Tesla ‘s robotaxi launch in Texas over the weekend. The electric vehicle maker invited a select group to ride the autonomous cars around Austin on Sunday. The event is considered a major milestone as some have pointed to driverless cars as the future of the business, which they in turn say makes the stock worthy of lofty valuations. Tesla shares jumped nearly 10% in Monday morning trading as investors reacted to the event. The stock has now surged around 37% in the second quarter, though shares have still fallen more than 12% in 2025. TSLA YTD mountain Tesla in 2025 Analyst outlooks on the event and what it means for the stock vary widely. While Wedbush’s Dan Ives, who rode in the robotaxis over the weekend, said it “exceeded our expectations,” Guggenheim’s Ronald Jewsikow called the event “baby steps.” But that’s not necessarily surprising given how much Wall Street differs on the stock itself. Of the more than 50 analysts surveyed by LSEG, price targets for the company’s shares range from between just $19.05 and $500. Here’s what each of the firms that tracked Sunday’s event thought about it and its effect on their investing thesis: Wedbush Ives recounted his experience taking two robotaxi rides in Austin. He found the cars were able to facilitate pickups well and navigate tough terrain. “Going into it, we expected to be impressed but walking away from it, all there is to say is that this is the future. We took two approximately 15 minute rides around Austin and the key takeaways are that it was a comfortable, safe, and personalized experience. The ride itself was completely smooth, and it was indistinguishable that the car was driverless as there was never a moment in the vehicle where we felt as if it did something irrational.” Guggenheim Guggenheim’s Jewsikow said the weekend experience wasn’t huge, but it should satisfy investors in the near term. He said the expansion rate for robotaxis will be what investors should watch. “Ultimately, the baby steps taken on Sunday in Austin were a good foundation, and shows the work the TSLA AI team has put into this launch, but what happens after the influencers leave will be far more important. By the end of this year, we believe the pace of expansion needs to be closer to a sprint to justify lofty robotaxi expectations embedded in TSLA valuation. While we can quibble about the merits of the event, it happened without a major issue, and that is likely good enough for the stock near-term, in our view. Service Area.” TD Cowen TD Cowen analyst Itay Michaeli said Sunday’s launch was a positive for the company. Additionally, Michaeli said he continues to be bullish on Tesla’s autonomous vehicle story, though he said he wanted to avoid making broader conclusions too early. “Our initial take from observing rider feedback on Sunday is as follows: (a) The initial Austin operating area (ODD) was larger than we would’ve thought, although Tesla’s initial ODD was smaller than Waymo’s; (b) We were impressed by Tesla’s UI, which appeared well-developed for an early stage rideshare deployment; (c) We were particularly impressed by the pickup/drop-off accuracy (i.e. navigating within a parking lot to a destination), which can be tricky for RoboTaxis particularly during the early launch phase; (d) No reported safety or major vehicle performance issues as we’re aware. For a first day, pretty impressive.” Barclays Barclays analyst Dan Levy said the robotaxi story should remain central for investors and the stock. However, he warned against traders getting ahead of themselves. “Zooming out, we believe the launch is a matter of perspective. Bulls will point to yesterday’s event as the start of a new era for Tesla, one which bulls and believers have been awaiting for a long time. They see the tech working well with a clear path of scaling, and point to Tesla now generating revenue on driverless rides as a critical milestone. Bulls will point to yesterday’s event as just the beginning of an exciting path of growth. We appreciate this view, and believe this further reinforces that Robotaxi/AV remains front and center for the stock … with fundamentals seemingly pushed to the side for now (albeit we believe fundamentals don’t matter until they matter). But we believe the much better question ahead is on the path of scaling, which we believe will be long, and we caution against overoptimism.” UBS UBS’ Joseph Spak said the robotaxi launch can help sustain interest in the stock despite initial service being small scale. While the analyst has a sell rating, he lifted his price target by $25 to $215 in a Monday note to clients. Still, that implies downside of more than 33% from Friday’s close. “TSLA’s initial robotaxi service may start small/limited including: 10-20 vehicles, geofenced, employees/invite only, safety monitors, tele-operations. But, this isn’t different from how other autonomous ride hailing services started. We believe it’s prudent for Tesla to begin operations this way before scaling. Despite limited initial operations, starting the service can help Tesla control the robotaxi narrative while also drawing more investor interest and focus to this opportunity, which could buoy the stock.”
