Although robot taxis have always been the subject of controversy,$Tesla (TSLA.US)$Finally, we still want to enter this field.

After announcing the launch of RoboTaxi on August 8, Tesla's stock price bucked the trend and rose 4.9% on Monday, the biggest one-day increase since March 18.

Musk, the “former richest man in the world,” also surged to 5.78 billion US dollars overnight, reaching 186 billion US dollars, returning to third place in the world's richest list.

Since the beginning of the year, Tesla has continued to decline, with a cumulative decline of more than 30%. Currently, RoboTaxi is being dubbed by the market as a “lifesaver” for Tesla to regain its momentum.

Promises to launch fully autonomous cars have long been the key to Tesla's high valuation.

Earlier, news broke in the media that Tesla has cancelled the long-awaited plan to produce electric cars under 30,000 US dollars, and Tesla will instead focus on autonomous vehicles and robot taxis.

In response, Musk denied abandoning plans to launch a low-cost car on X and stated that the media “lied (again)” when the news broke.

However, Musk then announced that he would launch Tesla Robotaxi on August 8, but did not provide any further details.

Tesla has been working on developing robotic taxis for years, and previously promised to run its own fleet.

In his early years, Musk stated in his “Master Plan, Part II,” that once “true autonomous driving is approved by regulators, this will mean you'll be able to summon your Tesla from almost anywhere. Once it's connected to you, you can sleep, read, or do anything else on the way to your destination.”

Musk said that one of the goals of the plan is to enable car owners to earn money from their vehicles when they are not using them.

He also said Tesla will operate its own fleet of robot taxis in short supply to ensure “no matter where you are, you can ride Tesla cars anytime.”

It should be noted, however, that 8 years have passed since this promise.

Whether Tesla will eventually launch a robot taxi is still an open question.

Although Musk has now announced that the first robot taxi is about to be unveiled, the launch date doesn't mean that deliveries will begin then.

According to previous “cases,” the first deliveries of Tesla's other product, the Cybertruck, only arrived a few years after launch.

Also, according to market analysis, the manufacturing risk of robot taxis may be greater and more complicated.

Philip Koopman, a professor studying autonomous vehicle safety at Carnegie Mellon University (Carnegie Mellon University), said:

“Others have found that what they thought would take two or three years turned out to be a project that took 10 or 20 years. Tesla has discovered this too.”

The development of autonomous vehicles is not going well.

Recently, autonomous driving software company Ghost Autonomy shut down its global operations because the path to profit was uncertain.

Previously, GM's Cruise autonomous driving division was subject to regulatory scrutiny because one of the vehicles hit and dragged pedestrians, then the company recalled driverless robot taxis, which also led to the US carmaker's layoffs and $1 billion in spending cuts.

Some Tesla investors and analysts say evaluating Tesla's robot taxi business is much more difficult than evaluating low-cost cars.

John Krafcik, former Waymo CEO, said:

“Tesla promised eight years ago that all of their cars would be fully autonomous, and although they changed their practices many times during this time, many people think it will be years away from fully autonomous driving.”

University of South Carolina professor Bryant Walker Smith also said that Tesla cars are currently unable to support real robot taxis.

He pointed out that Tesla's driver assistance systems are facing additional scrutiny, after “Tesla and its CEO have not fulfilled their promises for many years and made highly questionable statements about autonomous driving capabilities and recent timelines.”

Right now, Wall Street's views on RoboTaxi are clearly divided.

Deutsche Bank's Emmanuel Rosner said the robot taxi news is “changing” Tesla's arguments.

“If Model 2's transformation is confirmed once again, Tesla's bull market situation may be that, given solid improvements in its autonomous driving technology, Tesla decided to leverage its unique artificial intelligence and software advantages by focusing on robotic taxis, which few OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) can emulate, which will bring more favorable economic benefits.”

ARK Invest's founder, Cathie Wood, recently reiterated the company's target price target for Tesla of $2000, and the Robotaxi business is expected to reach $10 trillion in revenue.

Craig Irwin (Craig Irwin) of Roth Capital (Roth Capital) is more skeptical about robot taxis.

He believes Tesla still has a long way to go when it comes to autonomous driving. Today's trend in the stock is essentially technical rather than rooted in fundamentals.

He suspects Tesla's vehicles will require more enhanced sensors, cameras, and other devices to truly be fully autonomous, and the appeal of so-called “cyber taxis” is overshadowing the company's larger fundamental problems, such as lack of demand and intense competition.

Editor/Jeffrey