Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, the US electric car maker, has announced its plans to unveil its long-promised robotaxi later this year.
The announcement was made on X. Elon Musk posted that, “Tesla Robotaxi unveil on 8/8”. This comes at a time when the company struggles with weak sales and competition from cheap Chinese EVs.
This follows the recent report by Reuters that the company had canceled its plans to build a more affordable electric vehicle, said to be in the range of $25,000. Musk reportedly told employees that instead of building a mass-market EV, he wanted to focus completely on an autonomous vehicle that would make other vehicles obsolete.
As a respond to the report Elon Musk called Reuters report a lie, which he posted it on X. Since 2021, Musk has indicated his plans to launch a fully robotized taxi, even showing off a completely covered vehicle during a 2023 event unveiling the company’s third Master Plan. Before that, Musk speculated that Tesla owners would be able to earn revenue from their autonomous cars by sending them out to pick up and drop off passengers.
In 2021, Elon Musk said that Tesla’s robotaxis would soon be a reality in a tweet and spoke extensively about the latest self-driving technology developed and used by his electric car company. In October 2020, the beta version of the full self-drive (FSD) was launched. Only a small number of beta testers were given access to the revised FSD V9.
