Elon Musk says he’ll showcase Tesla’s purpose-built “robotaxi” prototype throughout an occasion October 10, after scrapping a previously-planned reveal on August 8 earlier this month. Musk stated Tesla will even showcase “a few different issues,” however didn’t clarify what that meant.
The feedback, made on Tesla’s second-quarter earnings name Tuesday, largely confirms Bloomberg’s authentic report in regards to the delay, together with that it was pushed by Musk’s want to revamp sure parts of the prototype. Musk confirmed earlier this month that he requested an “vital design change to the entrance.”
“Transferring it again just a few months allowed us to enhance the robotaxi, in addition to add in a pair different issues for the product unveil,” Musk stated throughout the name.
Not a lot is publicly identified about what Tesla will showcase, although there was an illustration of a small robotaxi prototype within the biography of Musk written by Walter Isaacson in 2023. Musk has spoken about making the car accessible to folks by means of Tesla’s app, much like how Uber and Lyft function. He’s additionally claimed Tesla house owners will be capable to put their very own automobiles on the shared community as soon as the corporate makes its Full Self-Driving software program superior sufficient to deal with all driving — one thing it’s nonetheless removed from conducting, regardless of the title.
Musk has spent years promising that Tesla would ship totally self-driving automobiles. However he has struggled to execute on the thought, and consequently Tesla is being sued by house owners and investigated by quite a few authorities businesses.
Requested on the decision when Tesla would be capable to supply its first unsupervised robotaxi journey, Musk stated he believes it could possibly be attainable by the top of this yr. However he added that it additionally may occur in 2025, and that he’s “overly optimistic” along with his predictions.
