Tesla (TSLA) stock traded at $354.57 in premarket on Tuesday, up just 0.1%, as investors continued to assess last week's Cybercab launch in Austin, Texas, a muted start to service for the company's steering-wheel- and pedal-free robotaxi. The stakes are high because the robotaxi program is widely viewed as Tesla's next major growth story at a time when its core EV business is losing momentum.

The Cybercab entered service in Texas following a launch event in Austin on September 3. The vehicle has no steering wheel or pedals and relies entirely on optical cameras, an approach that gives Tesla a potential cost edge over rivals using more expensive sensor setups such as lidar.

The launch itself, however, landed flat with investors. TSLA fell 5.9% the day after the event, erasing roughly $88 billion in market value. The decline followed a 5.4% gain in the run-up to the reveal, underscoring how much expectation had been priced in ahead of the reveal.

Wall Street Split on the Cybercab

GLJ analyst Gordon Johnson was blunt in his assessment. He noted that Tesla delivered just 45 vehicle registrations, declined to say how many Cybercabs were actually in service, skipped a livestream, kept CEO Elon Musk off the stage, and offered no pricing, no per-mile economics, and no way for consumers to place an order. Johnson rates TSLA a Sell with a $24.86 price target.

Wells Fargo's Colin Langan also reiterated a Sell rating, with a $130 target. He said the reveal lacked sufficient technical detail and a clear rollout timeline to justify the stock's current valuation.

Not everyone is bearish. Canaccord's George Ginarikas rates TSLA a Buy, calling the Cybercab "slick" and "luminous" and saying it looks like the future Musk promised. He acknowledged, though, that geographic density of service will be what the market needs to see next — how quickly Tesla can expand beyond a single-city, limited-scale service into a network large enough to move the financial needle.

Sales Numbers Add Pressure

The Cybercab debate is playing out against a tough sales backdrop. Tesla sold an estimated 40,816 vehicles in the U.S. in August, down 26% from 55,500 a year earlier. That is the steepest year-over-year monthly decline Tesla has recorded in 2026, worse than the 20% drop in June and the 21% decline in July. The slide comes amid intensifying competition from lower-priced EVs in the world's largest auto markets.

China was not much better. Tesla moved 50,047 vehicles there in August, down 12.4% year-over-year, marking a third straight monthly decline. The company was also offering discounts of up to 10,000 yuan ($1,475) on Model Y inventory, a sign of the pricing pressure it faces from domestic Chinese manufacturers.

Europe was a mixed picture. Registrations jumped 279% in France and 104% in Denmark, but fell sharply in Norway, Spain, Sweden, Portugal, and Italy.

Regulatory Spotlight

The NHTSA has opened an audit into how Tesla self-certified the Cybercab as compliant with federal safety standards. The agency is focusing on the fact that the vehicle operates without a steering wheel or pedals, which sits outside standard federal motor vehicle safety rules. That regulatory question remains unresolved, and its outcome could shape how quickly the Cybercab can scale beyond Texas, since existing federal rules were written assuming human drivers have manual controls available.

On the fundamentals side, Tesla's Q2 revenue rose 26% year-over-year to $28.24 billion, but operating margin fell to 1.4%, leaving the company with little cushion as it funds the robotaxi push.

On TipRanks, TSLA holds a Moderate Buy consensus from 11 Buys, 13 Holds, and three Sells, with an average price target of $377.08, implying 6.5% upside. The stock is down 21% year-to-date. For investors, the key markers ahead are the pace of Cybercab service expansion, monthly delivery figures, and the NHTSA's audit findings.