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 talking about his robotaxi project for years, and it could be a major new venture for the automaker as investors grow 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 reported that plans for Tesla’s much-anticipated low-cost car model had been scrapped. Musk accused Reuters of “lying.”
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.
Tesla doesn’t yet offer robotaxis, self-driving cars, or the technology to turn its vehicles into “Level 3” self-driving cars. However, Tesla does offer Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), including a standard Autopilot option or a premium Full Self-Driving “FSD” option, the latter for $199 per month for U.S. subscribers, or $12,000 upfront. It costs $.
To boost quarter-end sales, Musk recently required all sales and service staff to install and demo FSDs to 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.
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 also 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.
Some companies are 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.
-CNBC’s Kif Leswing contributed reporting.
