Ross Gerber Praises Tesla FSD V14 Improvements: Piper Sandler Analyst Predicts Over 25% Upside For TSLA Stock

Investor Ross Gerber, co-founder of investment firm Gerber Kawasaki, has hailed Tesla Inc.‘s (NASDAQ:TSLA) Full Self-Driving (FSD) v14 for its improvements over the previous iteration.

A Big Step Up

Taking to the social media platform X on Thursday, the investor shared that he was using the FSD v14.1.7 on his Cybertruck. “This version is a big step up from 13 which was not good,” Gerber said, sharing that he was “pretty pleased” with the system’s improvements with the updates.

However, the investor did outline that he was facing “mapping issues” with the system, which “messes up FSD.” Gerber also added that despite the issues, the iteration was “pretty good!”

Piper Sandler Hails FSD

Meanwhile, Piper Sandler analyst Alex Potter also praised the FSD v14, calling it a “truly impressive product” that was already better at driving than “the average American.”

Potter’s comments came after he shared that he had a “flawless” Robotaxi ride, maintaining an Overweight rating on Tesla and a $500 Price Target for the company stock.

Elon Musk’s Bearish LiDAR Views

Tesla’s FSD favors a camera-based approach to self-driving cars, a contrast from competitors like Alphabet Inc.‘s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) Waymo, which utilizes LiDAR technology. Musk has been a vocal critic of the technology, calling it “expensive” and “worthless” in the past.

However, Tesla’s vision-only approach to autonomous vehicles has raised doubts among industry leaders like Uber Technologies Inc. (NYSE:UBER) CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who has shared that perfecting camera-based autonomous driving technology could prove “to be very difficult.”

FSD NHTSA Probe, Dan O’Dowd’s Criticism

Despite the improvements to the system, FSD has been under the radar of safety regulators, with NHTSA announcing that it has officially launched a probe into 2.88 million Tesla vehicles after reviewing multiple incidents of traffic violations and accidents involving the automaker’s cars on FSD or Autopilot.

Meanwhile, The Dawn Project founder Dan O’Dowd slammed Musk and Tesla after a video emerged on social media showcasing a Tesla Robotaxi safety driver apparently asleep behind the wheel.

Tesla scores well on Momentum and Quality metrics, while offering satisfactory Growth, but poor Value. Tesla also has a favourable price trend in the Medium and Long term. For more such insights, sign up for Benzinga Edge Stock Rankings today!

Price Action: TSLA recorded a 2.17% decline to $395.23 at market close, but surged 0.60% to $397.60 during after-hours trading, according to Benzinga Pro data.

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