Elon Musk sets new date for Tesla robot taxi launch, calls everything but self-driving cars ‘noise’
Elon Musk said he would brag Tesla’s purpose-built “robotaxi” prototype at an event on October 10, after remove A previous plan was for an August 8 reveal. Musk said Tesla would also introduce “a few other things” but did not explain what that meant.
The comments came during Tesla’s second-quarter earnings call on Tuesday, largely confirming Bloomberg original report about the delay, including that it was prompted by Musk’s desire to redesign some elements of the prototype. Musk confirmed earlier this month that he had requested “a significant design change on the front end”.
“Putting it back a few months allows us to improve the robotaxi as well as add a few other things as we launch the product,” Musk said on the call.
Tesla robot taxis — and the “unsupervised” fully autonomous software that Musk says will power them — are central to the company’s future. Earlier this year, he laid off more than 10% of Tesla’s global workforce in an effort to reorganize the company toward developing artificial intelligence-powered products, including “hit the wall“promote the development of autonomy.
But the AI-centric future is clashing with the company’s main profit center, selling electric vehicles. Tesla reported on Tuesday that it has created Profit of $1.5 billion in the second quarter of 2024, down 45% from the same period last year. That gain was also offset by a record $890 million in regulatory credit sales, although Tesla reported a $622 million restructuring charge that dragged down its earnings. And while total revenue rose 2% year over year, auto sales fell 7% to $19.9 billion.
The performance comes after a difficult start to the year for Tesla, when first-quarter profits fell 55% year-over-year.
The company is now looking at the very real possibility of selling fewer electric vehicles in 2024 than in 2023, which would represent a dramatic reversal of its previous growth trajectory. Tesla has smoothed this out by telling investors that the company is in the midst of “two major waves of growth,” pinning its hopes for higher sales on the new (but divisive and costly) wave. Electric Truckand mysterious future models that could be sold at lower suggested retail prices.
But that’s just “noise,” Musk said. Tesla’s long-term value lies in autonomy and only autonomy, he stressed on Tuesday’s call. That includes the company’s humanoid robots. robot effort, called Optimuswas stealthily delayed this week. But it largely revolves around Musk’s longest-standing promise that he has yet to deliver on: self-driving cars.
With that in mind, Musk has tried to focus investors’ attention on the October 10 event. There hasn’t been much public information about what Tesla will unveil, although there has been a illustration of a small robotaxi prototype in Walter Isaacson’s 2023 biography of Musk.
Musk has talked about making cars available to people through Tesla’s app, similar to how Uber And Lyft operation. He also claimed that Tesla owners will be able to car on board network after the company creates Full Self-Driving software advanced enough to handle all driving — something the company is still a long way from achieving, despite the name.
Despite years of promises, Musk has struggled to make his idea of fully self-driving cars a reality, and as a result Tesla is being sued by car owners and investigated by multiple government agencies.
Asked on the call when Tesla might offer its first unattended robotaxi service, Musk said he believed it could happen by the end of the year. But he added that it could also happen by 2025 and that he was “too optimistic” in his predictions.
This story has been updated with more details from Tesla’s Q2 earnings call. The article was originally published at 2:45 p.m. PT.
