Tesla stock climbed 1.5% to $446.35 on Tuesday, outpacing broader US equity benchmarks.
The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.1% and 0.2%, respectively, as the electric-vehicle maker benefited from new optimism around its progress toward fully autonomous driving.
According to Piper Sandler, Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) development may be advancing faster than many investors appreciate.
Analyst Alexander Potter said in a note that the firm’s latest discussion with the creator of the FSD Community Tracker indicates that Tesla is “getting very close to unsupervised FSD,” citing notable improvements in key performance data.
Potter pointed to the tracker’s primary metric, “miles to critical disengagement,” which showed a “>20x improvement after FSD v14.1.x was released in October,” rising from 441 miles in the prior version to “9200+ miles.”
He added that this represents “the biggest sequential improvement in four years of data collection.”
Piper Sandler said supplemental data from Austin supports the improvement trend.
According to the firm, “Austin data imply 40k miles between crashes (7 NHTSA incidents in ~280k miles)… at 13k miles/year, this implies an FSD-equipped car can go ~3 years without crashing.”
The analysts added that tracker data showing “9k+ miles between disengagements” aligns closely with the Austin findings, reinforcing the view that Tesla is approaching a major threshold in autonomous performance.
The growing evidence base arrives at a pivotal moment for Tesla, which continues to position FSD as a central pillar of its long-term strategy.
Tesla sales in Asia
While autonomy gains boosted sentiment, global sales data painted a more varied picture.
According to new retail figures from the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA), VinFast sold 291 electric cars in India in November 2025, significantly more than Tesla’s 48 units.
Although volumes remain low overall, the comparison highlights the speed with which VinFast has accelerated since entering the Indian market.
Tata Motors remained the dominant EV player, delivering 6,153 units during the month, far ahead of Tesla and other competitors.
Tesla also saw softer performance in China. Industry data tracked by Citi analyst Jeff Chung showed the company sold just over 73,000 vehicles in November, down almost 1% year over year.
Through November, Tesla has sold about 537,000 vehicles in China.
To avoid its first annual sales decline in the market, Tesla would need to deliver 120,000 vehicles in December — a figure viewed as unlikely given that peak monthly production from the Shanghai factory is about 100,000 units.
Despite the mixed global backdrop, Tesla entered Tuesday’s session up 9% year to date.
Shares continue to trade at elevated valuation multiples, at about 205 times estimated earnings for the next 12 months, compared with roughly 120 times a year ago.
The post Why Tesla stock is making a comeback on Tuesday after Monday’s fall appeared first on Invezz