On Sunday (June 22), Tesla (TSLA) officially launched its highly anticipated Robotaxi trial operation in Austin, Texas. The first batch of about 10 Model Y customized versions were used for limited-area autonomous delivery services, with a fixed fee of $4.20 per trip. Although it is still an early pilot, only specific social media influencers are invited to experience it, and personnel are arranged in the car to do "front seat safety monitoring." 

Elon Musk praised this as "the culmination of a decade of hard work", emphasizing that all Tesla vehicles can be converted to Robotaxi with only software updates, without modification. Tesla also combined its self-developed AI chip with Full Self-Driving (FSD) software, and managed the trial operation through remote monitoring (teleoperation), which is completely different from the industry's expected standard configuration (such as LiDAR or radar). 

Three key points of observation: technology, regulation, and stock market expectations

• Technical testing and safety experiments: Tesla chose to advance pragmatically, only opening restricted areas, avoiding complex road conditions and bad weather, and using front seat monitoring and remote backup, which will be the key to observing whether AI cars have the ability to actually go on the road.

• Regulatory situation and state law promotion: Texas has implemented new self-driving car regulations in September, stipulating that Level-4 autonomous driving vehicles must obtain a license to ensure public safety. This will affect Tesla's promotion of replication plans in other cities.

• Capital market and stock price sensitivity: Robotaxi is regarded as the core of Tesla's future AI growth, and the market has high expectations. However, if the trial operation fails, it may still cause investor concerns. Institutions such as Wedbush and ARK Invest have raised their valuation expectations in advance; however, some analysts have warned that if the price cannot reasonably correspond to the cost or a major accident occurs, the stock price may still be impacted in the short term.