Gary Black Says Tesla's Autonomous Efforts Could Receive Major Setback Following Waymo Crash: Here's Why

Investor Gary Black of The Future Fund LLC thinks that Alphabet Inc.-backed (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) Waymo's crash incident could also be a major setback for Tesla Inc.'s (NASDAQ:TSLA) autonomous driving efforts amid NHTSA scrutiny.

‘Regulators Hit Pause Button,' Says Gary Black

In a post on the social media platform X on Thursday, the investor cautioned the Tesla faithful against not rooting for Waymo to progress. "This should be obvious but don't root against Waymo on safety issues," Black said.

He outlined that when Tesla's competitors "inflict injury or damage" with their AVs, it could pose regulatory hurdles for Tesla to scale up its AV business as "regulators hit the pause button."

Waymo's Los Angeles Crash, Growth

The incident, which now faces an NHTSA probe, occurred last week when a Waymo "Ojai" Robotaxi, built in collaboration with Chinese automaker Zeekr, which was being driven by a human driver, crashed into multiple parked cars in Los Angeles' Echo Park area.

The Ojai Robotaxi was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) earlier this month and features Waymo's sixth-generation autonomous driving suite with over 13 cameras, 6 radar sensors, 4 LiDAR sensors, as well as heaters, wipers and sprayers.

Tesla's Robotaxi Efforts

Meanwhile, Tesla's Robotaxi could see a major boost in the coming weeks, according to investor Gene Munster of Deepwater Asset Management. The investor shared that his reasoning behind the prediction stemmed from Tesla releasing Full Self-Driving (FSD) subscription data, which illustrated that the automaker had confidence in the technology's progress.

The automaker also recently announced a shift in its pricing strategy for the FSD service, with CEO Elon Musk sharing that the service would only be available as a $99/month subscription following Valentine's Day next month.

Tesla also currently offers the service with an $8,000 one-time upfront payment, which will not be offered in the future once February 14 passes.

According to Benzinga Edge Rankings, Tesla scores well on the Momentum metric and offers a favorable price trend in the Medium and Long term.

Price Action: TSLA slipped 3.45% to $416.56 at Market close on Thursday, but jumped 2.87% to $428.50 during the after-hours session.

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