New York, Feb 27, 2026, 10:01 EST — Regular session
- Tesla shares slipped early as attention shifted back to its California robotaxi ambitions.
- Tesla’s director has filed to offload shares through a scheduled trading plan.
- California’s latest regulatory moves are drawing traders’ attention, along with an important vote slated for next week at Tesla’s plant in Germany.
Tesla stock slipped around 0.1% to $408.16 Friday morning, following a 2.9% drop Thursday.
Investors are rethinking a key element of the Tesla narrative, as new pressure builds: just how quickly the company can move beyond “robotaxi” hype to secure regulatory signoff and launch an actual service, not just more demos.
California’s influence is outsized; it’s the top auto market in the U.S. and its standards for autonomous vehicles are tough. When there are delays in the state, timelines slip. Tesla stock has a history of moving with those shifts.
Tesla hasn’t logged a single mile of autonomous test driving on California roads in 2025—making it six years running, according to a Reuters report Thursday. The company also hasn’t tried for the extra permits needed to operate a driverless ride-hailing service. Reuters noted that Tesla’s only permit on file is the basic level, covering tests with a human safety driver. Under the DMV’s proposed rules, a company would have to notch at least 50,000 miles with a safety driver before even applying to test without one. For comparison, Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving arm, hit over 13 million miles in the last decade and racked up multiple approvals before it started charging for driverless rides, Reuters said.
Bryant Walker Smith, who teaches law at the University of South Carolina and specializes in autonomous vehicles, told Reuters that Tesla’s message is basically “they are ready and regulators are not.” But as Smith put it: “regulators are ready, and they are not.” Reuters
Tesla’s so-called robotaxi project in Austin, Texas, is limited to a small pilot, according to Reuters. Over in the Bay Area, what’s labeled as a “robotaxi” is actually just a chauffeur-driven ride where humans operate Teslas equipped with “Full Self-Driving”—which, notably, isn’t actually autonomous. Reuters
The stock’s been tracking the wider tech sector, with investors hashing out just how much future growth is baked into the heavyweights after a volatile stretch for AI-related names this week.
Tesla director Kathleen Wilson-Thompson has filed a Form 144 signaling plans to sell as many as 25,731 shares, totaling roughly $10.5 million, according to the company’s SEC filing. (A Form 144 is a notice of possible insider sales; it doesn’t confirm any shares have actually been sold.) The filing put the Rule 10b5-1 plan adoption at Nov. 26, 2025, setting up a pre-arranged schedule for the sales.
Tesla and IG Metall have hit pause on their clash over February’s labor meeting at the Berlin-area plant, the union said, holding off until works council elections wrap up next Wednesday.
Still, traders warn California’s outcome isn’t a one-way signal. Tesla might pursue permits yet, or see a lift if regulators tweak the rules—and since the stock’s moved sharply on autonomy news in the past, any real progress could flip sentiment fast.
Investors are keeping an eye out for fresh Tesla permit filings or updates related to its California ambitions, as well as the works council election at the German factory slated for March 4.
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