Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) shares fell nearly 6% to $354.08 on Friday following a muted Cybercab launch in Austin, Texas. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an Audit Query within 24 hours of the event.

The regulatory scrutiny targets approximately 1,000 Cybercabs. The agency is examining how Tesla self-certified vehicles lacking steering wheels, brake pedals, accelerator pedals, or mirrors as compliant with federal safety standards.

Limited Fleet and Muted Launch

Tesla began offering Cybercab rides Thursday only in limited areas of Austin. Texas records showed 45 Cybercabs among 420 autonomous Tesla vehicles registered in the state. This fleet had already emerged in records ahead of the launch.

Elon Musk skipped the event. Executive remarks on pricing, manufacturing, and technology lasted roughly 15 minutes. No livestream occurred despite 2 million users waiting on X. No pricing or fleet size details were provided.

Regulatory and Market Reaction

NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison stated the agency supports safe development of automated vehicles but must ensure laws are followed. The stock fell a further 0.34% in after-hours trading.

Gordon Johnson, a Tesla critic, argued the robotaxi narrative has been more about supporting the stock than proving scalable autonomous operations. He noted the absence of Elon Musk, pricing, and fleet size data.

Operational Challenges

Jefferies analysts previously found Tesla rides in Austin were cheaper than Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Waymo but suffered longer waits, more human safety drivers, and suboptimal routes.

Investor Gary Black argued in July that visible Cybercab inventory means little without commercially scalable autonomy. He dismissed parked Cybercabs at Giga Texas as irrelevant to investors unless they could operate without safety monitors.

Tesla says Cybercab rides are now available to the public in limited parts of Austin. The company states Robotaxi operates with Model Ys across Texas and Florida. It says Cybercab will eventually anchor a larger autonomous network.

What the Numbers Show

The divergence between the scale of regulatory interest and the physical fleet size is stark. While the NHTSA Audit Query covers roughly 1,000 Cybercabs, only 45 such vehicles were registered in Texas at the time of the launch. This suggests the regulatory probe is based on the broader certification claim for the vehicle design rather than the immediate operational deployment volume.

Future Fund managing partner Gary Black warned that Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) risks repeating a costly mistake from its electric vehicle era by relying on technology to sell itself.

Black argued that the company could squander its first-mover advantage in unsupervised autonomy and Cybercab if it continues to let the product speak for itself. He urged Tesla to spend roughly $100 million on advertising to reach consumers who do not already follow the brand.

Marketing Strategy Criticism

Black stated that Tesla has "no one but itself to blame" for losing its EV first-movers’ advantage between 2020 and 2023. He warned that a similar outcome could occur for unsupervised autonomy in 2026 and 2027 if the company follows the same playbook.

He described Tesla’s approach as a "short-term engineering mindset." Black argued that advertising should highlight specific benefits such as time saved, safety compared to human driving, and aesthetics. He noted that outside of Tesla’s devoted audience on X, many potential customers are unaware of the technology’s capabilities.

This criticism echoes earlier comments from Black. In May 2025, he called marketing Tesla’s "Achilles heel" and urged the company to educate non-EV owners about convenience and lower costs. In March, amid rising oil prices, he complained about the lack of advertising explaining EV benefits to potential consumers.

Autonomy Competition Context

Tesla has expanded its autonomous operations recently. The company began Cybercab production in July and expanded unsupervised rides in Austin, Miami, Orlando, and Tampa. Reuters reported that Tesla had 420 autonomous vehicles registered in Texas, including 45 Cybercabs.

Competitors are also expanding. Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOG, NASDAQ: GOOGL) Waymo and Amazon.com’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) Zoox continue to grow their robotaxi operations across more U.S. cities.

Valuation Implications

Black tied the marketing gap to Tesla’s valuation. He argued that the market requires better than 35%-40% long-term EPS growth to justify Tesla’s roughly 200-times forward P/E multiple.

"Absent this level of growth," Black warned, the stock is likely to continue underperforming. Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that Tesla stock offers a negative price trend in the short, medium, and long term.