On Thursday, October 10th, at 7 pm Pacific Time in the evening, $Tesla (TSLA.US)$ a revealing session will take place at the Warner Bros. Studios in Los Angeles, California, exploring its highly anticipated "Robotaxi" (also rumored to be called Cybercab).

The event named 'We, Robot' will be live-streamed on Musk's social media platform X, with uncertain synchronization on Google's YouTube, allowing retail investors to participate. North American Tesla stores will host viewing parties.

The day before the event, mainstream financial media quoted insiders revealing that this 'specially designed autonomous taxi' features upward-opening butterfly doors and two seats. Musk is expected to discuss the autonomous driving details of the semi-trailer electric truck.

Tesla's stock price fluctuated lower on Wednesday, opening down 2% and briefly turning slightly higher before dropping again before noon, ultimately closing down 1.41%. However, it has surged over 12% in the past month, breaking through the key technical level of the 50-day moving average, rebounding 75% from its low at the end of April.

What to expect at the press conference: Robotaxi, Robot Van, semi-truck autonomous driving features?

The general public believes that the shape of the siasun robot&automation taxi sounds similar to the 'early prototype car' published last year by Walter Issacson in his 'Musk Biography,' but it is unknown how close it is to the final version.

Elon Musk has postponed the unveiling event of the siasun robot&automation taxi scheduled for August 8th this year to October, citing 'significant changes to the front design.'

According to reports, the difference between the siasun robot&automation taxi and other Tesla models is that it can operate the car without a human driver present, possibly using a combination of cameras and computational power to achieve navigation. It won't rely on lidar sensors used by General Motors' Cruise and Google's Waymo autonomous vehicles, as Musk considers them too expensive and unnecessary.

Some investors believe that at the unveiling event of the siasun robot&automation taxi, Tesla may take the opportunity to introduce another new vehicle, such as a robot van that can carry dozens of people or even more, or be used as an autonomous delivery vehicle.

Two sources state that Musk is expected to also discuss Tesla's plans for developing full self-driving (FSD) for its semi-trailer electric truck, as well as his perspective on using this technology for transporting goods. However, there will be no demonstration video of a fully self-driving semi-trailer truck at this event.

Musk himself has high hopes for this robot taxi launch event. He posted on September 11th that the release of autonomous taxis will be Tesla's most important moment since the introduction of the 'mass-market god-car' Model 3 nine years ago.

On September 25th, when officially sending out the event invitations to investors, Musk also stated, 'This will be a historic event' and will 'officially unveil the mystery of the future of autonomous driving.'

How does Wall Street view it: Beware of the downward price risk of 'selling the fact', the press conference may be disappointing.

Gene Munster, Managing Partner of investment firm Deepwater Asset Management, warned that if this highly anticipated event only showcases some technologies that cannot truly materialize, such as an immobile car prototype, then Tesla's stock price will face downside risks due to investors' disappointment sentiment.

CFRA analyst Garrett Nelson also said last week, "Considering Tesla's recent stock price increase and the possibility of a disappointing press conference, we believe the risks are high, with downside risks greater than upside risks." Moreover, historically, Tesla's stock price has always risen before major events, then followed the pattern of 'selling the fact' after the event, with analysts currently seeking more visibility on mid-term profit growth.

Wedbush brokerage analyst Dan Ives, a long-term Tesla bull, predicts that Musk will provide the latest information on Tesla's fully autonomous driving system (FSD) and artificial intelligence at the robotaxi event, including more details on the next-generation platform, Tesla's breakthroughs in FSD and AI, and various strategic phases of the autonomous driving taxi launch in the coming years.

Renowned automotive analyst Adam Jonas of Morgan Stanley predicted last week that the robotaxi event will include a demonstration of the latest version 12.5 or higher of fully autonomous driving (FSD), as well as a demonstration of driving the autonomous taxi on closed routes. He expects the first commercial launch of Tesla's robotaxi to be around the end of 2025 or 2026.

However, he also tried to temper the overly optimistic market expectations, emphasizing that Tesla currently only has a permit for testing autonomous driving cars with a human supervisor, and not yet for testing or deploying autonomous driving cars without a driver. As for Musk's hint at 'other products released alongside the robotaxi' during the second-quarter earnings call, a Morgan Stanley analyst said it may be more promotional in nature:

"Can we expect electric planes? A ship? Or the latest generation of Optimus robots flipping burgers at a Tesla restaurant? It's still uncertain. But investors should be reminded that such events are aimed at achieving various purposes, including recruiting talent, marketing, and consumer education."

Some analysts also point out that Tesla's much-anticipated autonomous driving taxi is unlikely to have an immediate positive impact on its financial performance. However, given the significant growth potential in the autonomous ride-sharing market, its long-term prospects are still bullish.

Electrek, a website that tracks Tesla and electric vehicle news, said that actually Tesla didn't offer too many surprises this time. Perhaps the autonomous driving bread van is a good surprise, especially considering Tesla will definitely face some criticism due to the two-seater nature of the robot taxi, and the company has been promising to launch an electric bread van for many years.

"I think launching a bread van will have more impact than relying on Tesla to first solve the autonomous driving problem. Because Tesla not only needs to demonstrate significant progress in autonomous driving, but also needs to show a clear path to achieving this goal in the short term."

However, its FSD plan with driver supervision has lost a lot of credibility. According to Musk, the plan was supposed to achieve unsupervised autonomous driving by the end of each year for the past five years.

Now, Tesla plans to launch a car 'dedicated to autonomous driving', which may not have a throttle pedal or steering wheel, but has not yet delivered on its autonomous driving promise on millions of existing vehicles. This doesn't look very good."

Some media reports that Musk is betting Tesla's future on autonomous driving taxis, sacrificing the development of the much-anticipated $25,000 cheaper electric car, cutting teams focused on other projects, and downplaying the impact of the company's slowing sales. "Therefore, when Musk eventually unveils the prototype of the autonomous driving taxi on Thursday night, he will need to prove a lot."

Editor/Somer