Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has a futuristic car as Teslas (TSLA) – Get Tesla Inc Report future vehicle.
The long-awaited Cybertruck was thought to have pushed the boundaries of what’s possible today in terms of cars, but the billionaire doesn’t seem to think so. He just announced that Tesla is working on his robotaxi.
For Musk, Robotaxi means self-driving cars capable of driving without people inside and picking up passengers and dropping them off at customer-selected locations.
Basically a robotic version of Uber (ABOUT) – Get the report from Uber Technologies, Inc. or Lyft (LYFT) – Get the Lyft, Inc. Class A report.
On April 7, he promised that the vehicle, which will be neither the Model 3 sedan nor the Model Y SUV, as he hinted in 2019, is a new model.
“There’s going to be a special robotaxi that’s going to look pretty futuristic,” the tech tycoon said during the opening of Tesla’s $1.1 billion Texas factory.
He just provided more details during the first-quarter earnings call.
“We’re also working on a new vehicle that I alluded to when I opened Giga Texas, which is a custom robotaxi,” Musk told analysts. “This is a value that is strongly optimized for autonomy.”
No steering wheel or pedals
This means this car “wouldn’t have a steering wheel or pedals,” the mogul added.
“And there are a number of other innovations that I think are pretty exciting. But it’s fundamentally optimized. For example, it’s trying to achieve the lowest fully accounted cost per mile per kilometer.”
“I think it would be a very strong product,” Musk said.
The richest man in the world adds that Tesla plans to unveil this revolutionary vehicle in 2023 and start production in 2024.
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“We aim to achieve serial production of it in 2024. So I think this is really going to be a massive driver for Tesla’s growth,” Musk added without further detail.
“We don’t want to be too hasty in making an exciting product announcement, so next year we will hold a product event for Robotaxi and go into more detail,” the serial entrepreneur said when pressed for details.
The journey costs less than a subsidized bus ticket
He didn’t say, for example, whether Tesla will set up a subscription system or whether it will be under the Uber model: an app where you can order the vehicle when you need it and then the race will be charged directly to our credit card .
“I think especially with the robotaxi and autonomy, we’re going to end up giving consumers the lowest transportation cost per mile they’ve ever experienced,” Musk said. “With the robotaxi about five to ten times that or cost per mile, that’s really quite a lot.”
As for the price of the ride, he indicated that it will be cheaper than the subsidized price of a bus ticket or a subway ticket.
“Look at some of our forecasts, it seems that a robotaxi ride costs less than a bus ticket, for a subsidized bus ticket, for a subsidized subway ticket,” Tesla CEO said.
He also said that Tesla remains on track to begin production of the Cybertruck in Austin next year.
“The future is very exciting,” said the billionaire. “I’ve never been more optimistic or excited about the future, Tesla’s future, than I am right now.”
One of the biggest hurdles for a robotaxi fleet would be to reach level five of autonomous driving, where a car can drive itself without the presence of a human behind the wheel.
The Full Self-Driving (FSD) driver assistance system currently being developed by Tesla, which sells for $12,000, does not enable autonomous vehicles.
But Musk has promised that FSD will be perfected and will make Tesla cars self-driving by the end of the year. It’s important to note that the billionaire has made this promise multiple times without ever realizing it.
There is also regulation. It’s not certain that regulators will be ready by 2024 when it comes to autonomous cars.