Cathie Wood Says Tesla Holds Edge In 'Winner Take Most' Autonomous Driving And Robotaxi Opportunity

Ark Invest founder Cathy Wood, who is a Tesla, Inc. TSLA bull, in a recent media appearance, talked about the potential the autonomous driving technology has for the electric vehicle pioneer.

Ark’s Bull-Bear Cases: Delving into the bear-case 2027 price target of $1,400 for Tesla, Wood said a third of the valuation is associated with EVs and scaling them and two-thirds is around autonomous and autonomous taxi platforms, Wood said in an interview with CNBC.

The fund manager said many countries are interested in having a Tesla plant and pointed to Turkey to make her case. So the EV story is all working out as expected, she said.

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Tesla, Wood said, is in pole position in the U.S. as far as autonomous driving and robotaxi platforms are concerned. The company has collected more data about the roads in the U.S. and actually other roads around the world than all the other companies combined, she said. “Probably [Tesla] will be the company that will get people from point A to point B as quickly and safely as possible,” she said.

Robotaxis is a winner take the most market, Wood said.

Ark’s bear case assumes that autonomous takes a little longer to play out and the bull case assumes it plays out quickly, the celebrity stock picker said.

See Also: Everything You Need To Know About Tesla Stock

Extremely Optimistic Expectations? The risks surrounding Tesla’s autonomous driving tech and robotaxis are going down, said Wood. “Regulators are very data-driven,” she said, adding what regulators have been experiencing in the transportation sector is a spike in the number of auto deaths during the past five to 10 years from 30,000 to 45,000. This followed a period of falling deaths due to auto safety measures, she noted.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and other transportation authorities want to turn that trend back down, the fund manager said. The increase in accidents was mainly due to a lot of texting, leading to a disproportionate number of young people dying, she said.

“So the data supports what Tesla is doing,” Wood said. She noted that 80%-90% of all accidents on the roads are caused by human error. “If you take the human being out of the equation and use AI to get people from point A to point B as safely as quickly as possible…..the regulators are going to be persuaded by the data,” she said.

“People driving in Tesla cars are 40% plus safer with Autopilot and FSD than in other cars,” she added.

Tesla ended Monday’s session down 3.3% at $265.28, according to Benzinga Pro data.

Photo via Ark Invest.

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