Tesla (TSLA) stock is charging higher for a third trading session in a row as the company’s robotaxi rollout gains steam and the war between CEO Elon Musk and President Trump cools off.
On Monday night, Tesla was listed as an autonomous vehicle (AV) operator on Austin’s Transportation and Public Works website, ahead of the reported June 12 targeted start of Tesla’s robotaxi service. The news was first picked up by Tesla blog Teslarati.
Tesla stock was up over 4% in afternoon trading, poised for its third straight up session.
Tesla was listed with Alphabet’s Waymo, Amazon’s Zoox, Hyundai’s Motional, and a few others on the current list of AV operators in Austin.
Though Tesla’s June 12 start date isn’t official, and the company could delay the start due to other circumstances, Tesla’s listing on the Transportation and Public Works site is seen as positive momentum for the start to begin imminently.
Tesla will begin its unsupervised robotaxi testing with approximately 10 to 20 robotaxis at first and will ramp up if testing goes smoothly.
Tesla will use remote tele-operators in the event that a robotaxi has an incident or is stuck in a traffic situation, allowing human intervention when needed. While this is a welcome safety initiative, it may hinder any ramp-up of Tesla’s robotaxi fleet.
Musk’s closeness to President Trump was seen as a boon for its robotaxi ambitions, but the recent war of words between the two sank Tesla stock late last week, and it’s only now recovering.
Part of today’s recovery in the stock came as Trump made some conciliatory comments about Musk and Tesla on Monday after the bell.
“I’d have no problem with it,” Trump said at a White House event on Monday when asked if he would be willing to speak with Musk. “I’d imagine he wants to speak with me.”
Trump also revealed he wasn’t going to sell the Tesla Model S he bought in March, following the unprecedented event where Musk brought a fleet of Tesla EVs to the White House for Trump’s perusal.
Trump also said, when asked whether he knew Musk was taking drugs, that he really didn’t know.
“I don’t think so, I hope not,” Trump said.
Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on X and on Instagram.
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