A brewing beef between Elon Musk’s artificial-intelligence company xAI and Apple has become a watch item for Tesla investors.

TeslaTSLA stock traded above aggressive early entries during Monday's stock market as CEO Elon Musk over the weekend explained his reasons for ditching the Dojo supercomputer. Musk also claimed the robotaxi ride-hailing service will soon open to the public.

The consumer displeasure is real, and Musk's political allegiances have pushed some buyers to new and different brands. There's evidence of the effect this is having on Tesla's once-spotless brand image, according to new data from S&P Global Mobility, which tracks sales data across the automotive industry.