Shares of the American company Tesla reached their highest level since the beginning of 2025, according to trading data. The performance comes on the background of confirmation from CEO Elon Musk that Tesla is testing robotic cars in Austin, Texas, without people in the vehicle.
At the end of trading on Nasdaq on December 15, the company's shares rose by 3.56% to $ 475.31 per share. In premarket trading on December 16, shares fell 0.97% to $470.72 per share, according to trading data as of 2:15 p.m. Bulgarian time.
Tesla launched robotaxi in Austin in June 2025.
Tesla's owner previously said that the launch of autonomous taxis will be a central element of the company's future development. As The Wall Street Journal notes, the future success of the service is particularly important because the company's core business, namely selling cars, is under significant pressure from Chinese electric car manufacturers.
In the US market, Tesla will compete with Google's self-driving taxi service Waymo, which began rolling out in 2020. Musk's company will also face competition in the global market from Chinese companies Apollo Go, WeRide and Pony AI.
In 2016, Musk first announced to Tesla investors that the company would introduce an autonomous car capable of safely transporting passengers without human intervention in about a year, but it has not yet been released.