Tesla Stock Up After Elon Musk Confirms AI Day As Rivals Ramp Up Self-Driving Efforts

Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk confirmed via tweet on Thursday that the company is holding an AI Day on Aug. 19. Tesla stock rose.




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While the company did not provide details of the artificial intelligence event, Musk said in a June 21 tweet that the event “will go over progress with Tesla AI software & hardware, both training & inference” and that its purpose is recruiting.

The focus of the AI event is likely to be around Tesla’s self-driving technology. Although the system is named Full Self-Driving (FSD), the software is still in beta testing, and the company has said in SEC filings it is not yet fully autonomous.

Tesla’s recruiting effort in this area seeks to attract experts in machine learning and computer vision, as well as neural network specialists.

The news comes after Lyft (LYFT) said last week that it will have a fleet of self-driving cars fromĀ Ford (F) and Argo AI in service by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, chipmaker Intel‘s (INTC) Mobileye began testing autonomous vehicles in New York City earlier this month. And California regulators said last month that General Motors‘ (GM) Cruise can give passengers rides in prototype self-driving taxis.

Tesla Stock

Shares rose 4.8% to 677.80 on the stock market today. Tesla stock is bouncing above its 50-day line, according to MarketSmith chart analysis. The break from a short-term downtrend could represent an early entry, and IBD SwingTrader gives it a buy point of 669.71.

Tesla’s relative strength line is trending down. Its RS Rating is 74 out of a possible 99. Its EPS Rating is 74. On Monday, Tesla reported better-than-expected second-quarter earnings. EPS shot up 230% to $1.45, above views for 94 cents. Sales nearly doubled to $11.96 billion.

On the earnings call, Musk admitted the worth of Tesla’s current FSD subscription is “debatable.” But he thinks eventually, when it works really well, everybody will want it.

The subscription costs $199 per month for cars running Tesla’s Basic Autopilot system and $99 a month for vehicles equipped with Enhanced Autopilot.

GM rose 3.5%, and Ford added 3.9% after reporting strong Q2 earnings late Wednesday. Both auto giants are also ramping up spending on autonomy over the next five years.

Self-driving technology developer TuSimple Holdings (TSP) fell 4%.

Follow Adelia Cellini Linecker on Twitter @IBD_Adelia.

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