Electric vehicle giant Tesla (TSLA) has been involved with the autonomous vehicle taxi service concept for a while now, and recently made a substantial move in its choice of test cities. Reports note that Tesla will expand, and phase out safety drivers in Austin in order to move to Houston. The plan did not spark excitement in investors, who sent shares down nearly 2% in Wednesday afternoon’s trading.
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Tesla has several cities in mind to bring Cybercab service to, starting with Houston, followed by Dallas, Las Vegas, Miami and Phoenix. The dates for arrival are unclear, but it looks like Houston will be up next. Of course, the list does not stop there; Tesla wants Cybercab service to be everywhere down the line. But for now, the rollout is still gradual.
In fact, Tesla ramped up its Cybercab service in Austin only recently, reports note. Now, Tesla offers 30 Cybercabs in an area roughly 240 miles square. For now, a safety driver is still on board, but that will not be the case forever from the sound of it. And while the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is still investigation reports of several accidents—about 58, at last report—the program seems to be carrying on regardless.
Finding Superchargers
Meanwhile, Tesla also has a plan to make Superchargers easier to find. It got together with Alphabet’s (GOOG) Google Maps, which now displays Tesla Supercharger locations. Previously, this information was mostly only available to Tesla owners, who saw Supercharger locations available on their in-car displays, reports noted. Now, Google Maps will show the data as well.
Better yet, though, Maps offers expanded data on the Supercharger ports. It will list how many stalls each location has, and how many of them are available. This in turn should be extremely helpful for those looking for Supercharger outlets, and should also give Tesla that much more credibility in the market.
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 a 33.12% rally in its share price over the past year, the average TSLA price target of $382.54 per share implies 11.34% downside risk.
