Autonomous vehicle startup Nuro has secured two important California permits that move its Lucid (LCID) Gravity robotaxi program with Uber (UBER) closer to commercial deployment. Indeed, Nuro now has approval from the California Public Utilities Commission to test Gravity robotaxis with passengers and a safety monitor on board. It also received a California DMV permit in April to test fully driverless vehicles on public roads without a safety monitor. EV maker Tesla (TSLA), by contrast, operates paid Model Y robotaxi rides in California with safety monitors on board, but there has been no indication that it applied for a driverless permit, at least according to a February report from Reuters.
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New trading tool for TSLA bearsThe permits matter because California remains one of the most important testing grounds for robotaxis. Nuro’s driverless testing is currently approved in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties and includes driving on dry or wet pavement, in light rain, and in light-to-moderate fog. In addition, the vehicles are limited to a maximum speed of 45 miles per hour, and Nuro will be testing alongside other autonomous vehicle companies in the state. However, Google’s (GOOGL) Waymo remains the only company that is operating truly driverless paid rides at scale in the Bay Area.
Nevertheless, the Lucid, Nuro, and Uber partnership could become one of the more important robotaxi stories this year. In fact, Uber is investing $500 million in Lucid and has agreed to buy 35,000 robotaxis, such as the Gravity and future EVs based on Lucid’s upcoming midsize platform. Those vehicles will use Nuro’s autonomous driving software and hardware and are expected to launch through the Uber app in San Francisco by the end of the year. Meanwhile, Tesla has unsupervised robotaxis operating in Austin, Texas, where regulations are less restrictive than in California.
What Is the Prediction for TSLA Stock?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on TSLA stock based on 13 Buys, 12 Holds, and five Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. Furthermore, the average TSLA price target of $410.21 per share implies 4.2% downside risk.
