Tesla Shares Plunge 6 Percent Following Cybercab Reveal, NHTSA Probe

Tesla shares slid 6% on Friday after the electric vehicle manufacturer's long-awaited Cybercab update failed to impress investors. The drop wiped out gains from earlier in the week as markets weigh Tesla's push into the competitive U.S. robotaxi market against Alphabet's Waymo.

The company held an invite-only event on Thursday in Austin, Texas, which lacked a public livestream and featured no appearance from CEO Elon Musk. Tesla announced that users of its ride-hailing app can now access driverless trips in the two-seat, steering-wheel-free Cybercab within a strictly geofenced area.

'The event lacked a public livestream — a notable departure from Tesla's traditionally theatrical product reveals,' noted analysts at RBC Capital Markets in a client note. Financial experts pointed out that key questions surrounding production cadence, exact pricing, and regulatory approvals remain unanswered.

Complicating matters further, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration initiated an audit query on Thursday to investigate whether Tesla properly self-certified the Cybercab as safe for public roads. Early users in Austin have also reported execution hurdles, including routing errors and excessive wait times on the Tesla Robotaxi application.

Tesla closed trading down significantly on Friday as federal regulators review its safety filings and Wall Street reassesses the timeline for large-scale autonomous fleet commercialization.