Tesla stock dropped early Thursday, despite a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board that essentially cleared Tesla's Full Self Driving product of responsibility in a recent crash in Texas.
The reaction, however, does show investors something important about the stock market and how it reacts to events.
Shares of the electric-vehicle maker were down 0.1% at $393.92 in premarket trading, while S&P 500 futures were down 0.2% and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up 0.2%.
The move came after the NTSB released preliminary findings from a crash investigation on Wednesday. The incident occurred on June 19, 2026, in Katy, Texas. A 44-year-old driver crashed into a residence. At the time of the crash, the driver had engaged FSD, but data show that, before the crash, the driver manually overrode FSD by pressing on the accelerator pedal, speeding the car up to 70 miles per hour.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted about the crash on June 22. He sounded confident that FSD wasn't to blame. That is the case, based on the NTSB's preliminary findings.
Tesla stock was about $400 shortly before the incident. Shares were just below $400 entering Thursday trading. Accidents are tragic, and safety is paramount in the auto business. Still, most accidents don't become investor-level events.
That's a little different with new driver assistance systems, such as FSD, that can do most of the driving without human intervention. They can cause some stock volatility. New systems, rightly, always get more scrutiny from investors until people adapt to the new technology. Investors once pored over reports of EV battery fires until people got used to seeing more electric cars on roads.
The stock market is also forward-looking. Investors would never wait until the NTSB report to act. In this instance, investors decided the odds that Tesla tech was responsible were low.
Tesla's FSD still requires human supervision 100% of the time, but eventually Tesla hopes to advance the system to the point where drivers can take their eyes off the road.
As self-driving technology advances, scrutiny will remain high.
Coming into Thursday trading, Tesla stock was down 12% this year and up 23% over the past 12 months.
Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 16, 2026 08:11 ET (12:11 GMT)
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