Tesla shares jumped over 7% on Thursday as the company flooded Austin with Cybercab robotaxis in anticipation of the model’s official launch event, scheduled for later this afternoon.
As of press time, the stock traded as high as $384.04 — more than $25 above Wednesday’s closing price of $357.01.
The value represent Tesla’s strongest trading level since mid-July.
Since July 29, when the stock fell sharply to a one-year low of $297.38, shares have gradually recovered, rebounding about 20% as of Wednesday’s close.
The gains came hours before the company’s invite-only Cybercab launch event in downtown Austin, scheduled for 5:45 p.m. Eastern time.
Ahead of the event, Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s VP of Autopilot and AI, posted on X that it is a “big day today for the future of transportation!”
The event marks the first time Tesla has showcased a production Cybercab — a two-seat vehicle with no steering wheel and no pedals — to riders outside the company.
Production began at Giga Texas on February 17 and volume production followed in April.
Tesla began engineering tests on Austin public roads on June 30 and started employee rides in July, with more than 50 completed by Cybercab and Robotaxi Engineering Lead Eric Earley in the first days of the programme.
The vehicle runs the same Full Self-Driving software as the Model Ys already carrying passengers in Austin, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Orlando and Tampa.
Robotaxi App Shows Vehicle Selector
An updated listing on the Robotaxi app surfaced on Thursday showing riders a vehicle selector at booking.
Screenshots posted by X user Sawyer Merritt showed a Cybercab option seating two passengers alongside the existing Model Y option seating four.
A sample fare displayed $4.20 for a five-minute ride from a pickup point in South Austin to Terry Black’s Barbecue on Barton Springs Road — the same flat rate Tesla introduced when it launched the Robotaxi service in Austin in June 2025.
The app description stated that the Robotaxi vehicle lineup now includes the Cybercab, calling it Tesla’s first purpose-built autonomous vehicle.
Fleet Reaches 420 Vehicles
Tesla’s Texas fleet has grown to 420 registered robotaxis, including 45 Cybercabs and about 375 Model Y vehicles, according to Texas DMV automated-vehicle records cited by Bloomberg.
The figure represents a tenfold increase from the 42 vehicles registered when the Texas disclosure law took effect earlier this year.
The 45 Cybercabs appeared in the Texas Motor Carrier Credentialing System in a burst over the past several days.
The registrations placed the purpose-built vehicles into the same legal framework Tesla had already established for its Model Y fleet under Texas Senate Bill 2807, the self-certification law that took effect in late May.
Tesla’s total Texas fleet still trails Waymo, which has nearly 1,000 vehicles registered in the state, according to the same Bloomberg report.
Across the country, Waymo delivers more than 500,000 paid rides per week in 14 US metro areas and is targeting one million weekly trips by the end of the year, backed by a $16 billion funding round completed in February that valued the company at $110 billion.
Tesla expanded the Austin Robotaxi service area on Monday, three days before the launch. The boundary extended north along the US-183 corridor, an expansion of about 8%.
Stock Rallies on Autonomy Bet
Thursday’s move extended a broader run that began in early August.
Shares bottomed at $297.38 on July 29, the low point of the 52-week range, and have climbed steadily since.
On Monday, Tesla rallied nearly 6% to close at $367.95.
The stock trades at a premium that rests on the assumption Tesla can turn its robotaxi fleet into an autonomous ride-hailing network at scale.
Analysts remain divided.
TD Cowen analyst Itay Michaeli, who holds a Buy rating and a $460 price target, projected the Cybercab could reach an operating cost of approximately 30 cents per mile after testing FSD Version 14 and touring Giga Texas last November.
Ark Invest has projected a fully loaded operating cost of $0.20 per mile at scale by 2030, a figure CEO Elon Musk called ‘probably true’ in January.
Hours before the event, Musk highlighted the cost gap with Waymo on X, responding to an image comparing fleet economics.
The graphic showed that $1 million buys approximately eight Waymo Ojai robotaxis at an estimated $125,000 each, per Morgan Stanley, versus roughly 55 Cybercabs at an estimated $18,000 apiece, per Ark Invest.
Nevada regulators cleared the company for up to 5,000 robotaxis in Clark County on August 21, though the Cybercab chief engineer told regulators the company expects to field around 2,500 within the year.
The broader EV sales picture adds urgency to the autonomy push.
Motor Intelligence estimated Tesla sold 40,816 vehicles in the US in August, a 26% decline from the same month a year earlier — extending a year-over-year decline streak that has run through every month of 2026.
JPMorgan said after meeting Tesla’s Investor Relations team that the Cybercab is only the first purpose-built Robotaxi form factor, with additional vehicle types planned, including the Robovan.
Tesla has also said it is intentionally holding back additions of Model Y vehicles to the Robotaxi fleet as it prepares to scale the Cybercab.
