Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has been discussing launching Robotaxi since at least 2019. This was when he spoke about unveiling self-driving cars that could drive passengers around whenever their owners didn’t need them. The next major update came in 2020 when the CEO said a robotaxi would be unveiled in 2023 and enter production in 2024, which didn’t happen.
But now Musk is all set for the product launch of Robotaxi. Tesla’s “We, Robot” event is set to take place at a Hollywood studio Thursday night, and expectations are high. Too high for some analysts and investors.
The CEO is all primed to unveil his company’s efforts to produce a self-driving “robotaxi,” either delivering a massive win for investors that justifies sacrificing a widely anticipated car or a major disappointment.
As per the recent history of Tesla’s software, particularly Full Self-Driving (FSD) and Autopilot, has sparked quite a bit of controversy lately. The company has faced numerous legal battles and criticism over accusations of misleading advertising, which have led to plenty of headaches for both Tesla and its customers. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has looked into 956 crashes where Autopilot was reported to be active at the time. They’ve also initiated over thirty investigations into incidents involving Tesla’s software.
While Tesla is no newcomer to artificial intelligence and autonomous technology, it still lags behind some competitors. For instance, companies like Waymo, a subsidiary of Google, have been successfully operating autonomous vehicles for years.
“Waymo is already way ahead of them, offering thousands of autonomous rides per week in several major cities, and Amazon’s Zoox is on schedule to debut next year,” GraniteShares CEO Will Rhind told Quartz. “In the robotaxi space, they don’t have the first mover advantage and that could be costly if it takes them a year or more to officially launch their service.”
Speculations suggest that the tech giant may only unveil a prototype of its robotaxi for now, which means it could be nearly a year before these vehicles are available for purchase.