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Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, at the Porte de Versailles Exhibition Center in Paris, France on June 16, 2023 Attended the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups.
Gonzalo Fuentes | Reuters
tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a social media post about X that the company will launch its robotaxi product on August 8th.
Mr. Musk has been promising robotaxis to shareholders for years, but his dreams and promises of self-driving cars have yet to materialize. The date for the announcement event was decided as some investors become increasingly wary of the company amid slowing growth.
Tesla shares rose more than 3% in extended trading after Musk’s tweet.
Musk shared the announcement date on Friday after Reuters earlier reported that plans for Tesla’s highly anticipated low-cost electric car had been scrapped. Musk accused Reuters of “lying” by not disclosing inaccurate details in the article.
In 2015, Elon Musk told shareholders that Tesla cars would be “fully autonomous” within three years. In 2016, he said Tesla would be able to send one of its cars on a cross-country drive without any human intervention by the end of next year.
During a 2019 fundraising conference call, Musk told investors that Tesla expects to have 1 million vehicles on the road next year that function as “robotaxis.” It told investors at the time that each car could work 100 hours a week for its owner and should be profitable as robotaxis.
Tesla doesn’t yet offer robotaxis, self-driving cars, or the technology to turn its vehicles into “Level 3” self-driving cars. However, Tesla offers advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) that include a standard Autopilot option or a premium Full Self-Driving “FSD” option, the latter of which costs $199 per month for U.S. subscribers, or upfront. It costs $12,000.
Last month, as part of a quarter-end promotion, Musk required all sales and service staff to install and demo the FSD for customers before handing over the keys. “Very few people actually understand how well[monitored]FSDs actually work, and we know that this slows down the delivery process,” he said in an email to employees. But it’s still a difficult requirement.”
Despite its name, Tesla’s premium option requires a human driver behind the wheel, available to steer and brake at any time.
Musk has continued to bet that Tesla’s customers and shareholders will stick with the Tesla brand, regardless of self-driving delays or his own plans. inflammatory rhetoricHe now runs on X, the social network he acquired in 2022, as CTO, as well as Tesla and SpaceX, the rocket and satellite internet company.
Some self-driving car competitors are emerging.
Alphabet’s self-driving car division, Waymo, operates commercial driverless ride-hailing services in Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and is expanding in Austin, Texas, home of Tesla. Waymo recently signed a multi-year partnership with Uber that will use robotaxis to deliver food for Uber Eats in Arizona. In China, Didi’s autonomous division has commercial operations in markets including Guangzhou. Companies such as Wayve in the UK and Zoox in the US continue to test robotaxis.
Other companies are also struggling in a crowded market.
On Friday, Apple shut down its self-driving division and laid off about 600 people working on the project. GM’s Cruise Service previously offered self-driving car service in San Francisco until it was scaled back under regulatory oversight following an accident. Since the incident, Cruise’s robotaxi fleet has been grounded, local and federal governments have launched their own investigations, and Cruise’s leadership has been dismantled.
At Tesla, “announcement” dates do not predict near-term dates for commercial release of new products. For example, Tesla announced its fully electric heavy-duty truck “Semi” in 2017, but deliveries did not begin until December 2022. a bit Semi until today.