Tesla Reportedly Postponing Its Robotaxi Unveil Until October

Tesla won’t unveil its promised fully autonomous robotaxi until October in order to give the company’s engineering team more time to build and test prototypes. Bloomberg reports.

The delay has been communicated internally to Tesla employees, but has not yet been publicly announced. Bloomberg it says. Musk has yet to post anything about the X delay.

In an earnings call earlier this year, Musk reiterated his belief that Tesla is not a traditional car company but, in fact, an AI and robotics company. Facing pointed questions from investors about affordable EVs, Musk responded: “Really, we should be seen as an AI robotics company. If you value Tesla just as a car company…that’s the wrong structure.”

Musk has been teasing the possibility of a Tesla robotaxi for a long time. He speculated that Tesla owners would be able to earn revenue from their personally owned self-driving cars by sending them to pick up and deliver passengers. And the company even previewed a ride-sharing function integrated into the Tesla app.

But many of Musk’s predictions about fully autonomous vehicles have not come to fruition. Today, Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving systems require drivers to pay attention to the road and be ready to take control when necessary. Drivers are also responsible for any accidents that occur when driver assistance is engaged – and the company is in the midst of fighting several wrongful death lawsuits stemming from fatal crashes.

Meanwhile, Waymo and several other companies are currently operating fully autonomous robotaxis in several US cities.

In the earnings report, Tesla said the robotaxi will be “purpose-built,” which is a term used in the autonomous vehicle industry to describe vehicles that are built from the ground up to be autonomous and that often lack traditional controls like steering wheels and pedals. .