Elon Musk announces Tesla to unveil robotaxi on August 8

TEXAS: Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced that Tesla will unveil a ‘robotaxi’ on August 8. He made the announcement in a post on social media platform X.

In a post on X, Musk stated, “Tesla Robotaxi unveil on 8/8”. In the past, Musk has expressed liking for self-driving vehicles, stressing that they will be one of Tesla’s most important products.

Tesla Robotaxi unveil on 8/8

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2024

Elon Musk had said that Tesla will make a car that did not have human controls. He had also said that Tesla cars, which will have full self-driving capability will through software, gradually become better and better at driving, CNN reported.

He said that the cars, at some point, will have the capability of operating as fully autonomous taxis and could earn money for their owners by giving taxi rides on their own.

So far, Tesla has passed several of Musk’s predictions for when actual self-driving would be possible. In April 2019, Tesla said it expected to start operating robotaxis by 2020. The company predicted that the autonomous car would last 11 years and drive 1 million miles, which would make the company and the car operators earn a profit of $30,000 each year.

However, Elon Musk has admitted that his track for predictions can be off, sometimes by a mile. In an event in April 2019, he said, “The only criticism and it’s a fair one, sometimes I’m not on time. But I get it done and the Tesla team gets it done”, according to CNN report.

Presently, people can buy full self-driving capability with a new Tesla Model 3 for an additional $12,000 added to the car’s roughly $40,000 purchase price. The full self-driving capability can be bought on a subscription basis for up to $199 a month, based on how the car was originally equipped.

In small gray type, Tesla’s online description reads, “The currently enabled features require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous”, implying that it is not, in fact, capable of fully self-driving today.

According to Musk, the system will one day make Tesla cars incredibly valuable. In the company’s call for the third quarter in 2023, he noted, “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”.

Experts who have tested the system have said that, as of now, it is still far from being able to drive on its own without human control, CNN reported.

Kelly Funkhouser, associate director of vehicle technology for Consumer Reports, recently tested the system. Funkhouser said she is less worried about its safety than she is about ordinary Tesla Autopilot, which is made to give more limited driving assistance, particularly on highways. She said, “You’re not likely to tune out and become complacent or over-reliant on it.” Funkhouser added, “In fact, I would say you’re potentially more alert, CNN reported.

A number of companies, including Google’s parent company Alphabet’s subsidiary and GM subsidiary Cruise, are working on autonomous ride-sharing services. Cruise has halted testing work after one of its self-driving cars hit and dragged a pedestrian.

An internal review found that representatives of Cruise did not fully open up with regulators regarding the incident. The US Department of Justice is conducting an investigation into the matter. Meanwhile, Waymo, recently, recalled its own cars after two of its cars hit the same tow truck within minutes of one another.

Meanwhile, a report in the Financial Times had on April 3 said that Tesla Motors will send a team to scout locations in India this month for a proposed $2-3 billion electric car plant. This development comes after India lowered tariffs on higher-priced imported EVs last month for companies that commit to making them in the country within three years. (ANI)