Tesla
stock is trying to build on a strong week of gains. Shares were lower in early trading Monday in the wake of Super Bowl ads that were negative on Tesla’s driver-assistance software.
Tesla stock was down about 0.8% at $191.95 shortly after the market opened for trading Monday. The
S&P 500
and
Nasdaq Composite
were both flat.
Wall Street isn’t saying much to move shares on Monday. There are no downgrades or upgrades. There was some football-related news for Tesla investors to digest.
Two commercials were screened during the Super Bowl Sunday urging drivers to boycott Tesla’s self-driving technology. The ads were sponsored by technology entrepreneur Dan O’Dowd’s The Dawn Project.
O’Dowd is a longtime critic of Tesla’s driver-assistance features and wants the system, essentially, turned off.
Tesla’s highest-level driver-assistance product is called Full Self-Driving, or FSD. It can complete many driving tasks but requires supervision by drivers 100% of the time.
Regulators require auto makers to report any incidents involving driver-assistance functions. Tesla has reported 1,047 over the past 12 months, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data. That is more than any other auto maker, but vehicle telematics is the main way incidents get reported and Tesla is the only auto maker with a fully connected fleet of cars that reports driving conditions at the time of an incident.
NHTSA has required Tesla to modify its system recently. Tesla added additional warnings to pay attention to the road.
It’s the second consecutive Super Bowl O’Dowd has aired ads about Tesla’s self-driving systems. The ads weren’t national. They appeared in some local markets. O’Dowd didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the commercials.
Along with commercials, Tesla reduced prices on some U.S. Model Y cars until Feb. 29, Reuters reported, just a few weeks after making cuts in Germany.
Tesla dropped the cost of the rear-wheel drive Model Y and long-range version by $1,000 to $42,990 and $47,990, respectively, it reported.
Tesla didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on both the Super Bowl commercials and the price cuts.
Tesla stock closed Friday at $193.57, with a gain of 2.1%. Tesla was well off its 52-week high of $299.29, which the company reached last summer.
Trading volume of 84.48 million remained 31.61 million below its 65-day average daily volume of 116.09 million.
Shares of the electric-vehicle maker’s peers were also moving.
Lucid Group
was up 3.8%,
NIO
shares gained 4.3%, and
BYD
stock gained 0.9% in Hong Kong trading.
General Motors
stock rose 1.8% to $39.24.
Write to Rupert Steiner at [email protected] and Al Root at [email protected]
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