Tesla shares jumped after the company released a long-awaited update to its Full Self-Driving software, reinforcing a pattern where TSLA’s price movements are increasingly tethered not to how many cars it sells, but to how well those cars can drive themselves.
The rally underscores a broader truth about Tesla’s valuation: analysts estimate that roughly 77% of the company’s market cap is tied to the successful deployment of its autonomy technologies.
FSD updates keep moving the needle
Tesla’s approach to self-driving has always been software-first. Rather than waiting for a finished product, the company pushes incremental improvements to its fleet through over-the-air updates.
Version 13 of FSD began rolling out to customers in December 2024, marking a significant milestone in the software’s evolution. That release helped fuel a wave of investor optimism that carried into early 2025.
