Tesla stock rose on Monday after the company said it started operating its AIrobo-taxi businessin another city.
Shares of the electric-vehicle maker rose 6.7% to $419.77, while the S&P 500 rose 0.7% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.3%.
The move came after Tesla announced robo-taxis launched in Miami on Friday.
Tesla’s robo-taxis now operate in three states—Florida, California, and Texas. The service kicked off in Austin, Texas, about a year ago. The auto maker now operates in a few Texas cities and San Francisco.
Investors have been keen for Tesla’s robo-taxis to go nationwide, in large part because they want the company’s AI efforts to yield material sales and earnings.
Expansion has been slow, however, because of Tesla’s emphasis on safety. And the auto maker doesn’t expect needle-moving numbers from robo-taxis until next year at the earliest.
The pace of expansion is one reason the stock had fallen about 13% this year, coming into Monday trading.
It has been a volatile few days for Tesla stock. Shares were north of $425 before falling 7.5% on Thursday after reporting far better than expected second-quarter deliveries of about 480,000 vehicles. Wall Street was looking for about 406,000 cars. The drop was surprising, but Tesla stock rallied from under $380 a share in the days leading up to the report.
Along with AI-trained robo-taxis, Tesla is building AI-trained humanoid robots. Investors would like an update about those as well. CEO Elon Musk recently shared a small update, posting a picture of himself walking the new robot manufacturing line in Fremont, California, on July 1.
Tesla recently stopped producing the Model S and Model X at its Fremont plant, deciding to convert that capacity to a robot-making facility.
Tesla isn’t selling its robot, called Optimus, yet. Investors would probably settle for seeing version three of the robot, which might happen later this year.
Investors will have a chance to ask Musk and management about robo-taxis and robots on the company’s second-quarter earnings conference call slated for July 22.