Tesla postpones Robotaxi event, a setback to Musk's autonomous vehicle campaign

Shares of potential taxi rivals Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. moved sharply higher on the news. Uber's stock rose 6.1 percent Thursday, as shares of Lyft jumped 4.6 percent. An idea like Tesla offering an autonomous taxi service has swirled for years, at least since Musk wrote a second "master plan" for the company in 2016. It's a project the CEO has prioritized over the last few months rather than working on an electric vehicle that is cheaper than Tesla's most affordable car, the Model 3 sedan.

Musk has mentioned Tesla's autonomous vehicle technology research and development for over a decade already. And has billed customers thousands of dollars for it. For which the business has brought numerous features to market, collectively called Full Self-Driving, or FSD. The name is a misnomer — FSD requires constant attentiveness and does not make a Tesla autonomous. But Musk and the company's top engineers have been very bullish on FSD in recent months, as sales of the company's vehicles have slowed. Tesla delivered 6.6 percent fewer cars in the first half as a whole despite the company's addition of a new model—Cybertruck—to its lineup. Production at the automaker fell 14 percent in the second quarter compared with a year ago to help cut inventory that ballooned.