It wasn’t walking away from autonomy," GM Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson said last week. "It was walking away from the robotaxi side of it.”

Once its launch in Austin, Texas, proves successful, Tesla plans to expand its robotaxi program to multiple cities. Self-driving Teslas have already been spotted on city streets with a human riding shotgun ahead of the program's official launch.

Democratic lawmakers in Texas are calling for Tesla to delay its robotaxi launch. That’s unlikely to move the dial—but the stock could still slide when the market reopens on Friday.Two state senators and five state representatives signed a letter addressed to Tesla’s director of field quality Eddie Gates.