Anticipation had been building for weeks leading up to last Thursday, and rightly so. Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) was finally set to launch its Cybercab, the purpose-built robotaxi meant to propel it to the front of the self-driving race, and investors had been sending the shares higher, expecting a landmark moment.
Instead, Thursday’s event landed with a thud. There was no livestream, no appearance from Elon Musk, and crucially, no detail on how Tesla intends to price, scale, or make money from the service. The market's reaction was swift, with the stock sliding nearly 8% from its intraday high into the long holiday weekend, snuffing out what had been shaping up as a promising rally.
