Tesla (TSLA) stock falls after unveiling its Cybercab robotaxis

Shares of the electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla fell 7% on Friday morning after the company's long-awaited robotaxi event, where CEO Elon Musk unveiled the company's Cybercab self-driving concept car, failed to impress investors.

Musk unveiled Tesla's Cybercab concept vehicle – a low-slung, silver two-seater without steering wheels or pedals – on Thursday evening at the company's “We, Robot” event, where the company unveiled its ambitions to create a fleet of autonomous vehicles and robots.

The plan is for the car to be able to drive autonomously at launch. Musk said the company hopes to produce the Cybercab before 2027, but gave no details about where the cars will be manufactured. He said consumers could buy a Tesla Cybercab for a price under $30,000.

He also said he expects Tesla to introduce “unsupervised FSD” in the company's Model 3 and Model Y electric vehicles in Texas and California next year. FSD stands for “Full Self-Driving” and is Tesla’s premium driver assistance system, which is now available in a “monitored” version for Tesla electric vehicles.

The technology still requires a human driver at the wheel, ready to steer or brake at any time.

Reacting to Thursday's event, analysts at Barclays said the revelations did not highlight near-term opportunities for Tesla, but instead brought Musk's vision of a fully autonomous driving future to the forefront.

“As expected, like previous Tesla product launches, the event was light on details and instead emphasized the vision underlying Tesla's AI/AV (autonomous vehicle) growth efforts,” Barclays' US automotive and mobility team wrote in the announcement early Friday.

“Despite this, there have been no updates to suggest near-term opportunities. “Tesla did not show its low-cost model, production of which is scheduled for the first half of 2025,” they added. “We have also not received any short-term updates on FSD progress or data reflecting improvements in the system.”

Analysts at Piper Sandler said in a separate note Friday that “most commercial-focused companies will not be excited about the unveiling of the robo-taxis.”

“We would not be surprised to see the stock sell off in the coming weeks as pre-event momentum fades,” the investment bank's analysts said in the note.

Morgan Stanley, meanwhile, suggested that Musk failed to claim that Tesla was an artificial intelligence company during the event. The bank's analysts noted that Musk did not mention details about improvements to Tesla's FSD system, nor did the billionaire elaborate on alleged plans for a merger between Tesla and xAI, Musk's AI company.

The event “overall disappointed expectations in a number of areas: a lack of data on the rate of change in FSD/technology, the economics of ride-sharing, and go-to-market strategy,” Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a note on Friday.

“Overall, we were disappointed with the content and details of the presentation. Therefore, we expect TSLA to be under pressure after the event,” they added.

It is expected to be several years before self-driving cars become a common reality on public roads, as regulators are concerned about the safety features of such vehicles.

“It will be extremely difficult for Tesla to offer a new vehicle at this price within this time frame,” Forrester principal analyst Paul Miller said in an email to CNBC. “Economies of scale could ultimately allow the company to reduce costs to around $30,000. Without external subsidies or Tesla making a loss on every vehicle, it doesn’t seem plausible to bring it to market this decade at a price close to that price.”

Among the few companies that have successfully introduced self-driving cars to public roads is Google's Waymo, which has been offering its robotaxi service to the general public since June.

—CNBC's Lora Kolodny and Michael Bloom contributed to this report.