Tesla (TSLA) stock fell slightly on Tuesday after the company canceled the naming trademark “CyberCab” for its next self-driving taxi. The company missed out on both CyberCab and “RoboTaxi” as official vehicle names, and both applications were rejected by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
In mid-December, Elon Musk and Tesla announced that they had begun testing an unmanned robotaxi service. The project has been one of the company’s hottest over the past year, thanks to Musk’s public praise and promises. But Alphabet’s Waymo is also a big competitor in the self-driving taxi industry. Losing two trademarked names for autonomous taxi services would be a missed marketing opportunity that could have propelled TSLA further forward.
Additionally, Wall Street analysts expect Tesla to ramp up robotaxi testing and quickly deploy driverless taxis as it prepares to launch its CyberCab model this year. “The news that Tesla is testing robotaxis without safety monitors is consistent with our expectations that Tesla is making progress in testing and is consistent with management’s statements on its third-quarter earnings call,” said Seth Goldstein, senior equity analyst at Morningstar. Many analysts have suggested that Tesla’s efforts in the robotaxi space could bring in strong new revenue to outpace EV sales, which have declined over the past two years.
Currently, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on Tesla (TSLA) stock based on 13 Buy, 9 Hold, and 8 Sell assignments over the past three months, as shown in the image below. TSLA’s average price target of $393.89 per share implies a downside risk of 8.5%, as the stock has increased 14.53% over the past year.
