Tesla stock was gaining early Monday as investors continued to digest what they learned from the company's Robotaxi Day held Thursday evening.
Shares of the electric vehicle maker were up 1.7% in premarket trading at $221.44 while S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were flat.
Shares dropped 8.8% on Friday following the event. Wall Street's majority opinion following the technology showcase was that, while Tesla showed a physical robotaxi and said it hoped to start service in 2025, the company needed to provide more detail about technology improvement, safety data, and regulatory hurdles.
Tesla's humanoid robot Optimus was an important part of the event too. Investors hope Tesla will one day sell hundreds of thousands of AI-trained labor-saving robots for tens of thousands of dollars apiece.
The potential appears large, but Optimus might deserve some blame for the drop. Several of the robots appeared to be operated remotely by humans.
To be sure, Tesla showed what could be possible with the robots, but not everyone seemed to be aware some robots weren't completing tasks, such as serving drinks, all by themselves.
Tesla didn't respond to a request for comment about robot operation at Robotaxi Day.
It was just one more thing investors had to consider after the event. Their initial reaction was severe. Friday's drop was one of the steepest following a Tesla event ever. Shares dropped 10.3% after Tesla's Battery Day held on Sept. 22, 2020, but that was on a weak day for the market with the S&P 500 down 2.4%. Tesla stock underperformed the market by about 8 percentage points that day. Friday, the S&P 500 rose 0.6%, so Tesla stock underperformed by more than 9 percentage points, the worst one-day underperformance for the past 11 major Tesla events Barron's reviewed.
Coming into Monday trading, Tesla stock was down about 12% year to date.
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