- Tesla will reveal its robotaxi in August, CEO Elon Musk said.
- The EV-maker has long planned an autonomous automobile.
- This 12 months, Tesla began to release its driver-assistance software more widely.
Elon Musk said Tesla will reveal its long-awaited robotaxi in August.
“Tesla Robotaxi unveil on 8/8,” he said on X, formerly often called Twitter, on Friday afternoon.
Tesla Robotaxi unveil on 8/8
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2024
An autonomous ride-hailing vehicle has been a linchpin of Tesla’s valuation in recent times, as Musk pursues self-driving features to extend the worth of the corporate’s cars through software.
Shares of Tesla jumped greater than 3% in after-hours trading following Musk’s tweet.
In past interviews and analyst conference calls, Musk has touted Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software as having the power to make the cars grow in value. (Auto industry profit margins are notoriously thin, and latest cars lose much of their value the minute they leave the dealer lot.)
However, FSD remained in beta testing until earlier this 12 months, when Tesla began referring to it as FSD “supervised.”
The software is currently classified as “level two” on an industry standard that ranges from one to 6. That’s because FSD still requires complete human supervision and will not be fully autonomous.
Other corporations have successfully released more advanced versions of autonomous vehicles, corresponding to Alphabet’s Waymo division and GM-backed Cruise.
Earlier on Friday, Reuters reported Tesla had canceled plans around a related project, a less expensive electric automobile, to be able to put more resources behind the robotaxi. “Reuters is lying (again),” Musk wrote on X after the report.
It’s unclear what pricing may appear like for an eventual robotaxi and if it will be on the market to consumers or businesses. FSD currently costs $200 a month for owners whose cars have the precise hardware to enable it.
In 2022, Musk theorized a couple of pedal-and-steering-wheel-less Tesla “fundamentally optimized for trying to achieve the lowest fully considered cost per mile, cost per kilometer, accounting everything.”
“I think that that really will be a massive driver of Tesla’s growth,'” he said, estimating 2024 as a production date.
Credit : www.autoblog.com