Why Tesla stock popped today

adze (TSLA 4.96%) stock was a bit of a run this week. Shares rose more than 4% yesterday and were up another 7% in Thursday morning trading. As of 10:45 a.m. ET, Tesla shares were still trading up 6.3%.

Not because Tesla said it was selling more cars. In fact, yesterday’s jump came when CEO Elon Musk posted about robots, not cars. But today it has been more closely tied to the core electric vehicle (EV) business. More specifically, the company has set a timeline for the highly anticipated launch of full autonomous driving (FSD).

FSD revenue would reduce revenue

Musk posted yesterday that he visited Tesla’s engineering offices in California. He added: “The best, some bad. The future will be wild. There will be so many robots”. That has some investors buying shares with Tesla’s robotics unit in mind. The company hopes its humanoid Optimus robots will eventually become ubiquitous in factories, warehouses and even households.

This would add to Tesla’s future earnings strength. However, its FSD software is already bringing in revenue from Tesla EV owners using the latest version. That version still requires driver interaction, but software updates continually improve the system.

Nowthe company posted a timeline on social media for future software updates. Just as importantly, Tesla plans to offer the latest version of the FSD to customers in Europe and China starting in the first quarter of 2025.

This would immediately add very profitable revenue for the company and is exciting investors today. An upcoming robotaxi event planned for October 10 will provide more details about its self-driving aspirations.

A concrete software update program and additional sales certainly caught the attention of investors today. The launch of FSD in China and Europe still requires regulatory approval. But the company expects to clear that hurdle by the end of the year. If the company lives up to its recently released schedule, buyers of the stock today could be rewarded down the road.