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Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) swung lower in midday trading on Thursday after Bloomberg reported that the company may be delaying its robotaxi event scheduled for August 8. Sources indicate that the event may not take place until October because it needs more time to build the autonomous vehicle prototypes.
CEO Elon Musk has been mentioning the robotaxi event since April, while the robotaxi concept has been part of Tesla’s (TSLA) Master Plan for at least eight years.
Tesla (TSLA) had not confirmed at the time of publication if the date of the robotaxi event had changed.
Last month, J.P. Morgan warned that consensus expectations and valuation demands around the robotaxi business imply it will be a home run, which it considers far from certain. Notably, the firm thinks the timeframe for any company to generate material revenue from robotaxi operations is years out. That plays into its view that investors in Tesla (TSLA) may have gotten ahead of themselves in terms of baking in a robotaxi premium.
“We also worry the utilization of existing platforms for future lower cost models could imply that they may be less differentiated from current models in terms of price and other characteristics than previously assumed, suggesting potentially more cannibalization and less net increase in total unit volume relative to expectation.”
Shares of Tesla (TSLA) were down 6.62% to $245.82 to cut into the six-week rally of over 40%.