Tesla (TSLA) shares rose for a third straight session as the rollout of its self-driving taxis gained momentum and the war between CEO Elon Musk and President Trump cooled.
Tesla was listed as an autonomous vehicle (AV) operator on the Austin Department of Transportation and Public Works website late Monday. The announcement comes after reports that Tesla’s self-driving taxi service will officially launch on June 12. The news was first reported by Tesla blog Teslarati.
Tesla now joins Alphabet’s (GOOG) Waymo, Amazon’s (AMZN) Zoox, Hyundai’s Motional and several other companies on Austin’s list of AV operators.
Tesla shares closed up 5.7%, their third straight session of gains and helping the stock recover much of last week’s losses.
Tesla’s listing on the Transportation and Public Works website is seen as positive momentum for an upcoming launch. Tesla also confirmed a report on X that its self-driving taxis are being tested in the city, with a test Model Y with the word “Robotaxi” printed on the side of the car, followed closely by another Model Y chase car.
Tesla will begin its unsupervised robotaxi testing with about 10 to 20 robotaxis at first, and will increase the number of tests if the testing goes well.
If a self-driving taxi gets into an accident or gets stuck in traffic, Tesla will use remote operators to intervene manually if necessary. While this is a welcome safety move, it may hinder the expansion of Tesla’s self-driving taxi fleet.
Musk’s close relationship with Trump is seen as a big positive for Tesla’s self-driving taxi plan, but the recent war of words between the two caused Tesla’s stock price to plummet late last week, and it has only just recovered.
Today’s stock recovery is partly due to some conciliatory comments made by Trump about Musk and Tesla after the market closed on Monday.
“I have no problem with it,” Trump said at a White House event on Monday when asked if he would be willing to talk to Musk. “I think he wants to talk to me, too.”
Trump also revealed that he would not sell the Tesla Model S he bought in March, after Musk brought an unprecedented batch of Tesla electric vehicles to the White House for Trump to tour.
When asked if he knew that Musk was taking drugs, Trump also said that he really didn’t know.
“I don’t think so, I hope not,” Trump said.
