Tesla Cybercab on display in Brussels, Belgium (Sjoerd van der Wal/Getty Images)

Tesla up more than 9% after Trump administration relaxes self-driving regulations

The stock was trading up nearly 10% Friday after the announcement Thursday.

4/25/25 1:08PM

Tesla’s big bet on the Trump administration looks like it’s paying off both for Tesla’s autonomous future and its stock, which is up nearly 10% today. Yesterday the US Department of Transportation announced a national framework for government self-driving cars to help speed up their development.

“This Administration understands that we’re in a race with China to out-innovate, and the stakes couldn’t be higher,” US Secretary of Transportation Sean P. Duffy said in a press releasee. “As part of DOT’s innovation agenda, our new framework will slash red tape and move us closer to a single national standard that spurs innovation and prioritizes safety.”

To do so, American-built autonomous vehicles will be able to be exempted from certain federal safety rules for research and demonstration purposes, something previously available only to some foreign vehicles, and the department will streamline the reporting of safety incidents for those vehicles.

As Musk has noted, getting regulatory approval state by state or even county by county can slow down the adoption of autonomous vehicles.

“It’s incredibly painful to do it state by state for 50 states,” Musk said on an earnings call last fall regarding the country’s patchwork of regulation on autonomous vehicle approval. “There should be a national approval process for autonomy.”

More recently on the company’s latest earnings call this week, Musk said he expects the company’s robotaxi service to launch this year in Austin, and by the second half of next year there will be “millions of Teslas operating fully autonomously” around the country.

Of course, these moves by the DOT could also help Tesla’s autonomous competitors, like Google-parent-owned Waymo, which currently has a huge head start over Tesla in the autonomous ride-sharing space.

#10

Rani Molla3h

Tesla just recalled its beleaguered Cybertruck for the 10th time since the vehicle was introduced two years ago. This time the company recalled about 6,000 of the “apocalypse-proof” vehicles due to what the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says is an improperly installed “optional off-road light bar accessory” that could become disconnected from the windshield while driving, and could “create a road hazard for following motorists and increase their risk of a collision.”

CEO Elon Musk once said he could sell up to 500,000 of the stainless steel behemoths a year. In the first three quarters of this year, the company has sold only about 16,000.

Jon Keegan

FUNGIBLE FLEET

Microsoft: Forget what we said, we are going to keep spending on capex

Last quarter, the company offered guidance that its capex spending would be lower in the second half of the fiscal year. Yesterday it said spending would go up.

Microsoft Celebrates Its 50th Anniversary With Copilot AI Event

Rani Molla5h

Analysts lower Meta price targets after social media giant says AI capex will keep climbing

Meta may have posted record revenue Wednesday but the stock is deeply in the red in the wake of its third-quarter earnings report, after the social media company said that its capital expenditure on AI would continue to rise.

The earnings prompted a number of analysts to lower their price targets or downgrade the stock.

RBC Capital lowered its price target to $810 from $840. Bank of America Securities lowered its price target to $810 from $900. Barclays, JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank, and Wells Fargo also lowered their price targets on the company.

Earlier today, Benchmark downgraded its rating to a “hold” from a “buy.” Oppenheimer downgraded the company to “perform” from “outperform,” saying the “significant investment in Superintelligence despite unknown revenue opportunity mirrors 2021/2022 Metaverse spending.” Ouch.

Rani Molla

Capex marks the spot

Big Tech capex approaches $100 billion and Dan Ives loves it

AI spending shows no signs of flagging.