Veteran analyst drops jaw-dropping Tesla stock target | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

Say what you want about Tesla (TSLA) , but every move kicks off a fresh debate.

Hence, it was a given that its Robotaxis would fire things up even more. And they have.

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Though the bears had plenty to say about the Robotaxis, we now see the bulls step up, betting it could spark something massive.

It comes at a time when Tesla’s footing in Europe is slipping, deliveries are underwhelming, and its stock trades deep in the red for the better part of the year.

However, with a pat on the shoulder from some of Wall Street’s finest, it could spark the kind of run Tesla stock investors have been craving.

Bold analyst call links Tesla potential stock surge to new robotaxis

Image source&colon; Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Tesla’s Robotaxi finally hits the streets in Austin

Tesla’s hotly anticipated Robotaxi finally hit the streets on June 22, in a rather hush-hush, invite-only pilot in Austin, Texas.

Close to a dozen Model Ys cruised through a geofenced zone, each packing a front-seat safety monitor just in case.

Early videos spread like wildfire, showing relatively smooth $4.20 rides.

The bulls and Tesla die-hards were quick to label it as “the future of transport,”. Moreover, the stock popped as much as 11% a day later.

Fans say Tesla’s camera-only setup, which sidesteps the need for pricey lidar and radar, is the most cost-effective way to scale robotaxis for the masses.

Nevertheless, the skeptics kept circling as well. Bears warned that if the pilot failed, it could significantly impact Tesla’s brand equity.

More importantly, the regulators didn’t miss the messy bits.

Clips of wrong-way turns, speeding through school zones, and sudden stops put it on the radar of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

At the same time, the bigger picture is far from rosy on the operational side of things for Tesla.

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Europe deliveries fell for a fifth consecutive month in May, down nearly 28% year-over-year, squeezed by local and Chinese rivals like BYD.

Benchmark boosts Tesla target to $475 on Robotaxi bet

Benchmark just gave Tesla a fresh shot of Wall Street love.

In bumping its rating back up to “Buy”, the research firm has hiked its price target from $350 to an eye-catching $475. That represents almost a 47% increase from Tesla’s Friday closing price of $323.79.

Benchmark analyst Mickey Legg feels that Tesla’s cautious, safety-first Robotaxi pilot in Austin is exactly what the bulls needed to see.

For Legg, those Model Y rides show that Tesla’s camera-only approach could help scale where LiDAR-heavy rivals can’t.

Additionally, with Texas’s new self-driving rules on September 1, things could get a lot smoother for Robotaxis to scale up quickly.

Layer in a stock that’s up more than 50% off April’s lows, and Benchmark feels the upside could be massive.

Also, Benchmark says Tesla’s got a serious shot at becoming a full-on robotics powerhouse. The firm believes that the Optimus humanoid robot and next-gen energy play are huge bets, and one that could potentially take the stock to fresh highs.

On a similar note, long-time Tesla bull Wedbush’s Daniel Ives says the Austin Robotaxi pilot was the opening shot in what he calls a “golden era of autonomy.”

After sampling the geofenced Model Y fleet, Ives stuck with his Outperform rating, bumping his price target to a whopping $500.

In a similar vein to Legg, he feels that Tesla’s camera-only system can scale in ways that rivals with pricey sensors just can’t match.

However, Ive’s real kicker is the upside potential.

If Tesla pulls off the leap, it could unlock a staggering $1 trillion new market value.

That hinges on the dream of turning virtually every parked Tesla into a round-the-clock money-minting machine.

Adding to the hype, Tesla confirmed that a Model Y just delivered itself from the Austin Gigafactory straight to a customer’s driveway.

The delivery involved no human, no remote backup, reaching as high as 72 mph on local streets and highways.