Tesla (TSLA -2.21%) is primarily known for two things: electric vehicles (EV) and energy storage. For years, however, the company's eccentric CEO Elon Musk has been talking about a vision for the company that's rooted in artificial intelligence (AI).

Specifically, Musk wants to parlay Tesla's automobile business into a full-fledged robotaxi operation. The prospects of Tesla disrupting ride-hailing, delivery services, and even car rental businesses has investors excited. But just how real is the opportunity?

According to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who appears to be a fan of Musk already, Tesla's autonomous driving ambitions are very real. Let's dig into some recent commentary from Huang that should have Tesla bulls cheering.

What did Jensen Huang just say about Tesla?

During an April 2024 earnings call, Musk made an interesting point comparing the evolution of automobiles to that of cellphones. He described how the release of the iPhone and Android devices served as an existential shift in the mobile phone business, essentially turning flip phones into relics.

Musk went on to predict that "all cars will need to be smart cars" in the future. By "smart car," Musk means cars that are capable of driving themselves. Essentially, he is saying that autonomous driving is the future of the automotive industry, and if legacy manufacturers such as Ford and General Motors don't catch up to what Tesla is developing through its full self-driving software, then "licensing becomes not optional."

During an interview with Yahoo! Finance, Huang appeared to echo Musk's sentiment that all cars will eventually be leveraging autonomous driving technology. But the real kicker is what Huang said about Tesla, declaring the company is "far ahead" of the competition.

Some on Wall Street seem to agree

Two of the biggest Tesla bulls on Wall Street are equity research analyst Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities and Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood.

With Tesla's robotaxi launch reportedly on the horizon, Ives got investors excited when he recently declared the "golden age" of autonomous driving has arrived. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Ives also raised his price target to $500 for Tesla stock, implying nearly 53% upside from the stock's closing price on June 10.

Considering Alphabet's Waymo already has the lead in robotaxis, combined with existing footprints in the ride-hailing industry from Uber and Lyft, Tesla would appear to have an uphill battle when it comes to acquiring customers and scaling its own autonomous vehicle fleet.

Nevertheless, Wood appears to be even more bullish than Ives. The Ark Invest founder recently doubled down on her optimistic case for Tesla with a five-year share price target of $2,600!

An autonomous driving button inside of a car.

Image source: Getty Images.

Is Tesla stock a buy right now?

Tesla has long been a stock that exhibits out-of-the-ordinary behavior. What I mean by that is measuring Tesla based on traditional valuation metrics such as price-to-sales (P/S) or price-to-earnings (P/E) has rarely been useful. The reason is because Tesla stock tends to move based on narratives and less so on concrete financials.

Over the last month, shares of Tesla have gained roughly 9% as of June 10. However, within that brief period, the stock had climbed as high as 22% and declined as much as 5%. This is an extreme range of volatility, even for Tesla.

Tesla stock started to tick higher throughout May as Musk announced that he's moving on from his public sector duties at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Investors were happy to hear this as they assumed Musk would refocus on Tesla, a business that's been stagnant for over a year now.

On top of that, the expected robotaxi rollout in June likely attracted some investors as well.

But over the last week, Tesla stock took a nosedive at one point due to a very public feud between Musk and President Donald Trump -- specifically regarding disagreements the two have on Trump's new spending bill.

Just weeks ago, it seemed the upside from the robotaxi launch was already priced into Tesla stock, but now, you could argue this is an opportunity to buy the dip.

With this much volatility and so much of it hanging on the robotaxi, I'd wait and see how the launch goes. Long-term scaling of the robotaxi business will require regulatory approvals, making Musk's political feuds all the more relevant.

While it's tempting to scoop up shares of Tesla based on positive talking points from prominent figures such as Huang, Ives, and Wood, there's just too many unknowns surrounding the company right now to make it a prudent buy at these prices.