Tesla shares closed up nearly 22% on Thursday – their biggest single-day gain in over a decade – as Elon Musk's bold forecast of surging sales reassured investors he was still looking to grow its core business of selling electric cars. At close, nearly 150bn was added to the company's market value. Musk forecast 20-30% in sales growth next year, promising to launch an affordable vehicle in the first half of 2025, and said efforts to slash production costs boosted margins in the third quarter. The stock rose to a session high of 262.2 with volumes of roughly 200 million shares. It was the biggest gain since May 2013, and erased recent losses on concerns that Musk was distracted by new projects like the recently unveiled robotaxi.

For a businessman who perpetually struggles with broken promises, Elon Musk gave himself quite a to-do list Thursday night at Tesla's long-awaited Hollywood unveiling of its driverless robotaxis. His slew of announcements during a 20-minute presentation were short on practical details, which pushed the stock to close nearly 9% lower at 217.80 on Friday. After traversing the fake streets of the Warner Bros movie studio set in a sleek, silver two-door "Cybercab" prototype, he promised that the company's popular Model 3 and Model Y vehicles would be able to operate without driver supervision in California and Texas by next year.

For a businessman who perpetually struggles with broken promises, Elon Musk has given himself quite a to-do list at Tesla's long-awaited Hollywood unveiling of its driverless robotaxis. After traversing the fake streets of the Warner Bros movie studio set in a sleek, silver two-door "Cybercab" prototype, Musk promised on Thursday night that the company's popular Model 3 and Model Y vehicles would be able to operate without driver supervision in California and Texas by next year. Musk said the company would start building the fully autonomous Cybercab by 2026 at a price of less than 30,000, and showed off a robovan capable of transporting 20 people around town – which he said would reshape cities by "turning parking lots into parks". Later came the dancing humanoid robots that also mixed drinks at the bar, which Musk said Tesla will also eventually sell for 20,000 to 30,000 each. "I think this will be the biggest product ever, of any kind," he declared.

On Thursday, Tesla CEO and noted fancy leaper Elon Musk will take the stage to showcase the company's robotaxi plans, a la the "Cybercab." Although the vehicle we see isn't expected to be a fully functional product, investors and Tesla fans are hoping for a working prototype or other signs the company can navigate the technological and regulatory obstacles it will face. You can watch the event on an X livestream at 10PM ET. With the Cybercab, Musk is aiming for a fully autonomous vehicle that runs on a Tesla ridesharing network. Owners will also reportedly be able to make their cars available on the network to run as autonomous cabs, likened to a "combination of Airbnb and Uber."