Keep quiet on Tesla after Cybercab's debut fails

After Wall Street balked at it TeslaCNBC's Jim Cramer urged investors not to make any changes to the stock on the highly anticipated Robotaxi unveiling. While he said he wouldn't recommend buying Tesla after Thursday night's event failed, Cramer advised against shorting the stock and said it was “dangerous to bet against” CEO Elon Musk.

“While Tesla's robotaxi event was great, we did not receive enough detail to justify treating this company like an autonomous driving company rather than an electric vehicle manufacturer,” he said. “So for now I recommend taking a side from Switzerland and staying on the sidelines with that side.”

Tesla needed a win on Thursday, Cramer said. The stock came under pressure earlier this year as the company posted a series of weak quarters. But stocks gained momentum in the spring when Musk announced self-driving cars, which could set Tesla apart from other electric vehicle makers – all of which may face stiff competition from Chinese companies.

Although Cramer was impressed with the look and concept of the robotaxi, he said the event's demonstration lacked substance and failed to demonstrate its technological prowess. Musk provided few details about the actual cost of the vehicle and gave a “disappointing” verdict. Answer to the question about the timing of the rollout.

By Friday's close, Tesla shares had fallen 8.78%, and Cramer said the market's reaction spoke for itself. While Tesla crashed, shares of Lyft And Above recovered and the latter reached a new all-time high. The “existential threat” The number of robotaxis has put a strain on ride-hailing companies, but Wall Street doesn't seem confident that Tesla's Cybercab will be usable any time soon, he added.

“Look, Tesla has a big problem: The market for electric vehicles turned out to be much smaller than expected,” Cramer said. “If they want to move to self-driving cars, they're going to have to really flesh that out, and we just didn't get a lot of concrete details last night.”