Tesla shares climbed to their highest level in almost a year on Monday after CEO Elon Musk said the company is testing its robotaxis without a safety monitor sitting in the front passenger seat.
Tesla, now valued at about $1.53 trillion, is the most valuable automaker in the world, largely due to investor confidence in its self-driving technology and humanoid robot plans, even though most of its revenue and profits still come from selling electric vehicles.
The company’s stock rose as much as 4.9% to $481.37, close to its record high of $488.54 reached on December 18 last year, when hopes grew that a Trump administration would ease rules for self-driving cars.
Tesla began a limited robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, in June using modified Model Y vehicles with Full Self-Driving, where operations were restricted to certain areas and included a human safety monitor.
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Elon Musk said in a post on X that testing is now being done with no one inside the vehicle. Investors and analysts believe Tesla will step up testing and move quickly toward launching fully driverless taxis as it prepares to introduce its Cybercab model next year.
Morningstar analyst Seth Goldstein said this development matches expectations that Tesla is making steady progress, as discussed during its third-quarter earnings call, and that the market is reacting positively to this progress.
Tesla has promoted its robotaxi plans for years, but regulatory and technical challenges have slowed advancement.
Meanwhile, Alphabet’s Waymo remains the leader, operating more than 2,500 commercial robotaxis in major U.S. cities and providing around 450,000 paid rides per week as of November.
