Tesla Takes Surprisingly Dexterous Robot to China, Tesla Stock (NASDAQ:TSLA) Slips

Electric vehicle giant Tesla TSLA -1.80% ▼ is valiantly trying to get out from under the notion that it is exclusively an electric vehicle giant. Expansions into batteries and artificial intelligence (AI) are making a huge difference therein. Tesla’s robots, however, may offer the deepest distinction. Tesla took to a Chinese trade show to show off the latest in its humanoid robot, but investors did not exactly seem pleased. Tesla shares slipped modestly in Thursday afternoon’s trading.

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Tesla took its robot to the 2026 Appliance and Electronics World Expo (AWE 2026) event, which opened earlier today. Production of the robots is expected to start before the year is out, though the final production version of the robot may differ from the one shown at the event.

Still, what Tesla had to show was impressive enough. The robot was sufficiently dexterous to make a heart shape with its hands by touching its fingers and thumbs together. Tesla is currently using some of these robots in its factories, and looks to entrust them with more complex tasks as the year goes along. Interestingly, Tesla looks for its strongest competition in robotics to come from China, so for Tesla to exhibit in China is a sign of belief that its own product line can effectively compete.

“Either This Car Drives Itself or It Does Not Drive”

Meanwhile, Tesla’s ambitions to build a fully self-driving car continue, to the point where some Tesla cars no longer have steering wheels. As Tesla CEO Elon Musk noted, “There’s no fallback mechanism here. Like this car either drives itself or it does not drive.”

Analysts, though, think that this could be a larger problem. Andrew Percoco—a Morgan Stanley analyst with a five-star rating on TipRanks—noted, “I think it’s going to take time for buyers to get accustomed to buying a car without a steering wheel.” And with Musk himself warning that production will be “agonizingly slow” in the early going, customers may have the time they need to get used to the notion after all.

Is Tesla a Buy, Hold or Sell?

Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on TSLA stock based on 13 Buys, 11 Holds, and seven Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 69.44% rally in its share price over the past year, the average TSLA price target of $399.25 per share implies 0.14% downside risk.

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