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Tesla stock rose to start a new week of trading. A couple of things were helping and both are about the same thing: Self-driving cars.

Shares of the electric vehicle maker were up 2% in Monday's premarket at $352.3 each, while S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were both slightly in the red.

For starters, there is Wall Street. On Sunday, Stifel analyst Stephen Gengaro raised his Tesla stock price target to $411 from $287. He kept his Buy rating.

"We believe buying Tesla shares requires vision and patience, and the willingness to accept volatility," wrote Gengaro. He isn't wrong. Tesla stock is notoriously volatile. Coming into Monday trading, shares were up about 37% since the Nov. 5 election, accounting for almost all of the year-to-date gains.

The move is despite no change in 2025 earnings estimates. Investors are banking on CEO Elon Musk's closeness to President-elect Donald Trump benefiting the EV maker. One way it could is if a Federal standard were introduced to regulate self-driving cars, which would smooth the introduction of robotaxi services. Tesla plans to launch a self-driving robotaxi service in late 2025.

"While we have confidence in Tesla's Auto business, the significant value creation potential from its AI-based full self-driving capabilities and Cybercab (Robotaxi) underpin our positive outlook," added Gengaro.

His target price is now the highest on Wall Street, according to FactSet, valuing Tesla stock at about $1.3 trillion.

Overall, 42% of analysts covering Tesla stock rate shares Buy. The average Buy-rating ratio for stocks in the S&P 500 is about 55%. The average analyst price target for Tesla shares is about $248.

Along with the target price bump, Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla's vice president of AI software, said in a post on X Saturday night that version 13 of Tesla's highest-level driver assistance software called Full Self-Driving, or FSD, began rolling out to customers.

Most customers who pay $99 a month for FSD software are still on an FSD version beginning with the number 12.

The new version "upgrades every part of the end-to-end driving network," read part of the release notes. Elluswamy's post drew an "It's Alive!" response from Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Musk said in November that FSD should be better than human drivers in early 2025 and the company plans to launch a robotaxi service later in 2025.

Tesla uses AI computing to train cars to drive themselves. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives puts a $1 trillion valuation on the company's AI/self-driving opportunity.

He rates shares Buy and has a $400 price target for the stock. That's now the second-highest price target for Tesla stock, according to FactSet.

Eventually, Tesla bulls would like Tesla stock to push past its current record closing high of $409.97 reached on Nov. 4, 2021. Tesla's record intraday high of $414.50 was reached on the same day.