While the Full Self-Driving feature of Tesla’s (TSLA) line of electric vehicles has not proven quite as “full” as anyone would like, it still represents a major advance forward in the field. And, despite a new investigation incoming from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), investors are proving surprisingly resilient, sending Tesla shares up fractionally in Friday afternoon’s trading.
A while back, a Tesla electric vehicle was involved in a collision with a pedestrian, who, sadly, died as a result. Full Self-Driving was in use at the time, though the day was foggy, and that prompted concerns from the NHTSA over whether or not the Full Self-Driving feature could be used “…in fog, glaring sun or other reduced roadway visibility conditions.”
Given that Tesla has already pivoted its marketing to describe Full Self-Driving as Full Self-Driving (Supervised), the point might be rather moot. Indeed, no car is at its fullest in “reduced roadway visibility conditions,” so Tesla’s included “supervised” caveat really should be enough to fend off such investigations. Only time will tell, however, just how rationally the government feels like behaving.
Good News and Bad News
Meanwhile, the rest of the field is sort of a mixed bag for Tesla. First, it has completely sold out its backlog of Cybertruck models, meaning they can now be ordered without a reservation. This also means that demand is now roughly in line with supply, and supply may actually be outpacing demand just a bit.
However, Tesla has cleared its backlog after only selling about 30,000 Cybertrucks. Given that the reservation list had two million people on it, the conversion rate to paying customers was very low.
Then there is the matter of the Robotaxi. With Tesla’s Full Self-Driving capabilities looking a bit shaky and investors starting to pull back somewhat, Tesla’s share price itself started coming under fire as some questioned why it still commands the premium it does.
Is Tesla a Buy, Hold, or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on TSLA stock based on 11 Buys, 16 Holds, and eight Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 0.28% rally in its share price over the past year, the average TSLA price target of $207.83 per share implies 6.11% downside risk.
