Is Tesla about to have its James Watt moment?

Spencer Platt/Getty Images News

Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas thinks Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/TSLA]) may be at a pivotal moment in its history, with the company on the verge of pulling safety drivers out of its robotaxis in Austin.

"Our understanding is that there is no other explicit regulatory approval required to pull drivers in Texas. A passive optical-only AV system would seriously challenge the conventional thinking of many in the robotaxi community. Tesla truly believes that radar and LIDAR do not make its cars any safer," highlighted Jonas.

Crucially, Jonas and his team think that if you can solve autonomy for cars, you solve autonomy for many other form factors of AI-enabled robotics, such as aviation, marine, weapons, and more.

The analogy used to describe Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/TSLA]) closing in on its optical-only robotaxi scaling without a safety driver is the work of James Watt with the steam engine in the mid-1760s. While James Watt did not invent the first steam engine, he solved a major flaw of previous designs, which wasted steam and fuel. Watt invented the separate condenser in 1765 that advanced the technology globally. Notably, Watt is the man who is sometimes credited with accelerating the Industrial Revolution.

RELATED ETFS: Global X Autonomous & Electric Vehicles ETF (DRIV [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/DRIV]), iShares Self-Driving EV and Tech ETF (IDRV [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/IDRV]), First Trust S-Network Future Vehicles & Technology ETF (CARZ [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/CARZ]), and the ARK Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF (ARKQ [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/ARKQ]).

Shares of Tesla (TSLA [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/TSLA]) were up 0.9% premarket on Tuesday after gaining 4.3% on Monday.

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