TSLA Stock Drops On Disappointing Cybercab Event, NHTSA Probe — But Elon Musk Highlights Growth Since IPO

• The comment came after the stock dropped 6% on Friday, following a Cybercab launch event on Thursday that disappointed investors. 
• The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also opened a review of Cybercabs on Friday to determine whether Tesla properly certified the vehicle.
• Tesla priced the initial public offering on June 28, 2010, at $17 a share, valuing the company at around $1.5 billion.

Tesla stock fell about 6% on Friday after a Cybercab event left investors disappointed, but the electric-vehicle maker was still valued at about $1.11 trillion.

Shares traded near $354 at the time of writing, down from Thursday’s close of $376.37.

Why The Shares Dropped?

Tesla jumped more than 5% on Thursday ahead of the Cybercab's launch in Austin. The two-seat robotaxi has no steering wheel or pedals, and the event was closed to the public. Tesla did not livestream it, and Chief Executive Elon Musk did not appear.

The company rolled out the vehicle in limited areas of Austin. While it is unclear how many Cybercabs are operating on the roads, Tesla has registered around 45 vehicles with the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, disappointing investors who expected a wider rollout.

U.S. auto-safety regulators added pressure. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Friday opened a review of Cybercabs to check whether Tesla properly certified a vehicle that lacks conventional driver controls, raising fresh questions about how fast the service can expand.

“Among other things, NHTSA will consider the extent to which Tesla’s certification depended on determinations that certain Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) are inapplicable to the Cybercab,” the regulator said.

Musk’s Message

Tesla CEO Elon Musk still struck a long-term note. Replying on Friday to a post arguing Tesla was worth more than other publicly traded automakers combined, he wrote, “We’ve come a long way. Tesla IPO value was a thousandth of its current value!”

Tesla priced the offering on June 28, 2010, at $17 a share, valuing the company at around $1.5 billion. The company’s market valuation has since multiplied by about 800-900 times to reach about $1.5 trillion, before Friday's selloff.

Still In A League Of Its Own

Even after Friday’s drop, Tesla’s valuation remains in a different category from the rest of the auto industry, including Detroit’s largest listed carmakers and China’s EV giant BYD. Ford was valued at about $58 billion, General Motors at about $77 billion, Stellantis at about $14 billion, and BYD at roughly $110 billion at the time of writing.

The world’s largest automaker by volume, Toyota Motor, has a market valuation of about $284 billion.

How Did TSLA Retail Traders React?

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around TSLA stock remained ‘bullish’ over the past 24 hours, while message volume was ‘high.’

TSLA stock has fallen 21% year-to-date. 

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