Tesla has secured official approval to begin testing its Robotaxi service on public roads in Nevada, which drove the company’s stock up more than 6% on Thursday.
The momentum continued into Friday, with shares rising by more than 6% to a value of $394 per share — marking a new seven-month high for the EV/AI stock.
The previous 2025 record high had been reached in early February, closing the fourth day of the month with $392.21.
Additionally, Friday’s surge comes amid the comments from Tesla chair Robyn Denholm, who told Bloomberg on Friday that Elon Musk is once again “front and center” at the automaker, following his departure from the advisory role at DOGE in May.
Denholm dismissed concerns that Musk’s political activity has weighed on demand, arguing he remains the right leader to steer Tesla forward.
Tesla‘s share value has declined sharply since late 2024. On December 16, the company closed at $488.54, its all time high.
On January 2, the new year began with the EV maker closing 22.4% lower at $379.28.
Since then, it has sharply declined until it hit $214.25 in April — a 43.5% decline from the recent peak.
The stock has risen 17.18% in the past 30 days, contributing to a 68.2% gain over the last 12 months. Despite the strong performance, it is still down 4% year to date.
The Office of Business Licensing from the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles approved on Thursday the company’s Testing Registry certification, according to Tesla enthusiast and shareholder Sawyer Merritt.
Merritt wrote on X this Thursday that the he has confirmed the information “directly with the Nevada DMV,” and that “autonomous plates and the registry certificate were also sent back out to Tesla yesterday [Wednesday].”
The content creator, who has over 957,000 followers on X, further noted that, for the company to officially start offering rides to the public, it will need to complete a “Self-Certification for Operations.”
The certification will allow Tesla to operate a service in Nevada that is similar to the one it has launched in Austin, from late June.
Earlier in July, during the company’s quarterly earnings call, CEO Elon Musk had already revealed that the company had requested permissions to operate in several states, including Nevada.
“We’re getting the regulatory permission to launch in the Bay Area, Nevada, Arizona, and a number of… Florida, a number of other places,” Musk had stated then.
Since then, the EV maker expanded the service to the Bay Area, introducing it with safety operators behind the wheel, as opposed to Austin, where they usually ride in the passenger seat.
Last month, Tesla was also spotted testing its Robotaxi in Miami, Florida, with no one inside the vehicle — not even the safety operator in the passenger side.
As the company expanded its geofenced area in Austin to include freeways, the operator must be present in the driver’s seat in every trip that includes those.
After some people compared the service to regular ride-hailing with a human driver using Tesla‘s Full Self-Driving (FSD), Elon Musk said last week that the safety driver will likely be removed by year-end.
“The safety driver is only needed for the first few months to be extra safe,” he wrote on X. “There should be no safety driver by the end of the year.”
Earlier this week, media outlet Politico reported that Tesla has started requesting approval from several California airports to allow its driverless ride-hailing service to pick up and drop off passengers there.
The news came a week after Alphabet-backed Waymo became the first authorized fully autonomous ride-hailing service to operate commercially on the premises of the San José Airport.
The public launch is planned for later this month, with Tesla having launched the Robotaxi app on Apple Store already, as it aims for half of the US population to be able to use the service by the end of 2025.
Tesla has begun offering customers in Texas the option to use to ride to the factory and pick up their vehicles through its Robotaxi service.
“Be among the first to take an autonomous ride in Robotaxi at the end of September,” the brand states in an invitation sent to customers. “You and your family will have the exclusive opportunity to experience our latest technology followed by your Model Y pick-up.”
