Tesla will unveil its Robotaxi August 8, CEO Elon Musk announced Friday.
In his typical fashion, Musk made the announcement on X (formerly Twitter), the social media site he owns. The post included the date with no further details.
According to a Reuters report earlier in the day, Tesla has reportedly dropped its $25,000 affordable EV project in favor of robotaxis, a term for shared autonomous vehicles. The report said the Tesla Robotaxi will be built on the same platform as the scrapped $25,000 EV, sometimes referred to as the Model 2, but in smaller numbers.
Tesla Robotaxi unveil on 8/8
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2024
Tesla in 2022 said the platform to be used by these vehicles could cost half as much to make, which would have been a key factor in the affordable Model 2.
Musk has been periodically talking about this idea of revenue-generating self-driving taxis since 2019. At that time Musk suggested that Tesla would provide the interface and support, collecting a fee of 25% or 30%.
Robotaxis could perhaps use the wireless inductive charging tech Tesla is thought to be adopting, as that would eliminate the need for a human minder to plug them in. But more important will likely be a completely different hardware set for autonomous driving, as Tesla’s Full Self-Driving functionality continues to attract scrutiny and won’t be a system allowing the driver to focus away from responsibility anytime soon. And Musk’s claim years ago that the Tesla Model 3 would be an appreciating asset due to self-driving capabilities has simply not come to fruition.
Arrival Car prototype
Tesla recently sold 6 million cumulative EVs, but robotaxis could be a wholly different challenge. Heavy investments in robotaxi technology and a failure to return on bullish projections for shareholders are, for instance, partly what cut former Ford CEO Mark Fields’ tenure short.
Previous non-Tesla efforts to develop an EV for Uber haven’t gone anywhere. Could Tesla drive Uber out of business, or is this another project, like the second-generation Roadster, that will be shown as a concept then kicked ahead years beyond an original launch point?
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