Tesla's advances in autonomous driving and robotaxi services could drive its next phase of growth, Bank of America said. The bank reinstated its coverage of the electric vehicle maker at a buy rating. Before coverage was paused, the bank had designated the stock as a hold. Analyst Alexander Perry's $460 price objective implies upside of 17%. Shares of Tesla have slipped 13% this year, but are up 44% over the past 12 months. TSLA 1Y mountain TSLA 1Y chart Perry wrote that he views Tesla as the current leader in autonomous driving. "We expect TSLA to quickly become a leader in robotaxi services, given its ability to scale more profitably than competitors. We see autonomous vehicles spurring the next era of mobility and as the most significant change agent in the Auto 2.0 landscape, offering consumers the prospect of saving time, safer travel, and more accessible transportation," he wrote. Robotaxi, Perry said, offers the most significant opportunity ahead for Tesla. The technology currently operates in Austin, with several additional markets expected to come online in the first half of the year. Perry believes that Tesla will quickly scale its robotaxis going forward. "The standard technology used in the autonomous industry is multi‑sensor fusion approaches (LiDAR/radar/cameras), whereas Tesla's camera‑only approach is technically harder but much cheaper and leverages a consumer‑fleet data engine," he wrote. "Tesla's strategy should allow it to scale more profitably compared to Robotaxi competitors, while the lack of drivers gives it a cost advantage vs. rideshare players." Perry added that Tesla's full self-driving software is in the early stages of monetization and could stand to be the leading consumer autonomy solution. Again, the analyst sees adoption scaling rapidly from here, and expects Tesla to gain market share amid a tougher regulatory backdrop for electric vehicle players. Additional upside, the analyst noted, could come from Tesla's Optimus humanoid segment, which Perry values at over $30 billion. He also sees upside from Tesla's energy business. "Optimus will likely first be used in manufacturing and possibly replace a portion of the ~13mm U.S. manufacturing jobs, with future adoption in households," he wrote. "Separately, we value the Energy business at $90bn (6% of valuation) & expect Tesla to have leading share with its residential Powerwall batteries and its Megapacks for use by utilities & data centers." Tesla shares rose more than 1% following the rating change.
