3 Key Thoughts Heading Into Tesla's Unveiling: SolarCity, Safety And Shared Autonomy

Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas believes the October 17 product unveiling would an opportunity for Tesla Motors Inc TSLA to share details regarding its shared autonomous transport offering.

Jonas maintained an Equal-Weight rating on the company, with a price target of $245. The analyst mentioned that there were three key thoughts ahead of the October 17 product unveiling.

Related Link: What Does Tesla Have Coming?

Shared Autonomy News

Firstly, Jonas stated that it has been about “9 months since Tesla made the very high profile hire of microprocessor engineer Jim Keller to run Tesla’s Autopilot efforts.”

While several companies have since then announced various partnerships and resting of autonomous ridesharing services across the world, Tesla is still to reveal more details.

Solar City

Secondly, investor sentiment has been very negative since the acquisition offer for SolarCity Corp SCTY.

“Tesla may want to use October 17th as an opportunity to focus on its core transportation business and to present itself as a innovation leader in sustainable and safer driving,” Jonas stated, while pointing out, “The past 18 months have brought an increasing number of competing initiatives and strategic partnerships that Tesla must compete with.”

Safety

Thirdly, the analyst expects Tesla to place “relentless emphasis” on public safety and health.

With autopilot having been in the news due to concerns regarding consumer safety and moral hazard, Jonas believes the company might want to shed light on the favorable safety record of its vehicles, from its connected, semi-automatic fleet, using social media to gain the attention of regulators and the financial markets.

“Tesla is uniquely positioned to collect and analyze its vehicle data so that its fleet can ‘learn’. This network/swarm effect applies not just to vehicle safety, but also to the refinement of its battery/storage and electrical propulsion system,” Jonas added.