Most bullish investors and analysts tie the bulk of Tesla's stock value to its plans for a massive robotaxi and autonomous-driving subscription business. Now is the time for "the fundamental inflection" that "we're all hoping for," said Blake Anderson, associate portfolio manager at Carson Group, a Tesla investor.

Tesla peppered its latest earnings call with pledges to launch commercial robotaxi operations soon, with CEO Elon Musk promising that autonomous vehicles will "move the financial needle in a significant way" by late next year.

Tesla Inc. has expanded its testing of a ride-share app to employees in Austin, as the company pushes toward a June launch of an autonomous version of the service.