Elon Musk Announces Tesla Will Unveil A ‘Robotaxi’ On August 8

Elon Musk has long expressed an interest in self-driving cars, stating they will be one of Tesla’s most essential products. Despite promises, self-driving cars have yet to be available.

On a Friday afternoon, when corporations typically bury the news, Musk stated on X that Tesla would showcase its robotaxi on August 8.

His post was brief and needed more details. “Tesla Robotaxi to be unveiled on 8/8,” the Tesla CEO (and X owner) wrote.

Elon Musk Announces Tesla Will Unveil A ‘Robotaxi’ On August 8

Musk previously stated that Tesla would build a car without controls for human use. He has previously stated that Tesla cars with Full Self-Driving Capability will steadily improve their driving abilities through software updates. Musk has consistently stated that the cars will eventually be capable of operating as completely autonomous taxis, allowing their owners to earn money by giving taxi rides on their own.

So far, the business has outperformed several of Musk’s estimates about when genuine self-driving will be available.

Tesla announced five years ago, in April 2019, that it intended to start operating robotaxis by 2020. The business estimated that the self-driving cars would last 11 years and travel 1 million miles, earning the company and the car’s operators $30,000 per year.

However, Musk said that his track record of making forecasts is occasionally off by a long shot.

“The only criticism, which is valid, is that I am not always on time. But I get it done, and so does the Tesla team,” Musk remarked during the April 2019 event.

Full Self-Driving capabilities may be acquired with a new Tesla Model 3, for example, for an extra $12,000 over the car’s base price of around $40,000. Depending on the vehicle’s original configuration, it can also be purchased on a monthly subscription basis for up to $199.

In little gray print, Tesla’s online description states, “The currently enabled features require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous,” implying that it is incapable of fully self-driving.

Musk claims the technology will one day make Tesla vehicles extremely valuable.

Elon Musk Announces Tesla Will Unveil A ‘Robotaxi’ On August 8

“You can think of every car we sell or produce that has full autonomy capability as something that in the future may be worth five times what it is today,” he said on the company’s third-quarter earnings call last year.

Experts who have evaluated the technology say it is still far from being able to operate autonomously without human assistance.

Kelly Funkhouser, associate director of automotive technology for Consumer Reports, recently evaluated the system and stated that she is less concerned about its safety than the standard Tesla Autopilot, designed to provide more limited driving assistance primarily on highways. Ironically, this is due to the poor performance of full self-driving technology. Funkhouser compared it to relinquishing control of your automobile to a new teen driver.

“You’re not likely to tune out and become complacent or over-reliant on it,” she told me. “In fact, I would say you’re potentially more alert.”

Several businesses, notably Waymo, a subsidiary of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, and General Motors affiliate Cruise, are developing autonomous ride-sharing systems.

Elon Musk Announces Tesla Will Unveil A ‘Robotaxi’ On August 8

Cruise has halted its testing after one of its self-driving cars struck and dragged a pedestrian. According to an internal inquiry, corporate personnel did not adequately disclose the occurrence to regulators. The corporation is under investigation by the Department of Justice for the event.

Waymo recently had to recall its vehicles after two collided with the same tow truck within minutes of each other.

SOURCE – (CNN)