Electric vehicle giant Tesla TSLA is eager to build out two things right now: robotics and artificial intelligence (AI). Sometimes it even tries to put these things together, as is somewhat the case with its robotaxi and Full Self-Driving (FSD) systems. The good news is that these things seem to be working, though the improvements are bringing some trouble along with them. Tesla stock slipped fractionally in Tuesday afternoon’s trading after video of one such problem emerged.
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In order to get the Robotaxis out into play, Tesla had to throw something of a sop to regulators, keeping a “safety driver” in place during their operation, a human driver that could step in and take over for the vehicle’s FSD functions in the event these stop working. But this means that the safety driver, much of the time, has little to actually do. However, when something does go wrong, the safety driver needs to be ready to step in in fractions of a second to prevent disaster. And that was what disturbed many about one safety driver, who fell asleep during a Robotaxi ride in San Francisco.
The video shows the safety driver falling asleep on three different occasions. The person who filmed the video actually reached out to Tesla to show the safety driver catching quick naps—more like dozing off—during the ride, but Tesla has yet to respond. A subsequent report from another poster revealed that this same safety driver apparently also dozed off during “…a traffic-choked drive from Temescal to San Francisco.”
Then There’s The Robot Army
Tesla has made no secrets of its plans to roll out humanoid robots. The Optimus line of robots has quite a few potential use cases coming along with it, from serving standard functions to oddly esoteric ones like serving as automated consciences for criminals. But Tesla’s plans for the Optimus line also include some impressive numbers, particularly the deployment of one million Optimus robots in short order.
And there may be one particular target for the Optimus line: the auto industry. Reports note that several car manufacturers are using robots to spot-check human work, and a lot of these robots are humanoid in nature. With car manufacturers eager to improve their profit margins by reducing costs—and labor looking like one serious item on the bottom line—the idea that Tesla might be able to sell Optimus robots to car manufacturers in big numbers is not out of line.
Is Tesla a Buy, Hold or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on TSLA stock based on 14 Buys, 10 Holds, and 10 Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After an 18.18% rally in its share price over the past year, the average TSLA price target of $384.14 per share implies 5.55% downside risk.
