Tesla is developing a vehicle without a steering wheel or pedals, with a “volume production” deadline of 2024. Elon Musk, the company’s CEO, discussed the “dedicated robotaxi” during the company’s Q1 results call on Wednesday.
“It’s fundamentally optimized for trying to achieve the lowest fully considered cost per mile, cost per kilometer, accounting for everything,” he said. “I think that that really will be a massive driver of Tesla’s growth.”
He attributed the lack of steering wheel and pedals to the fact that it’ll be “highly optimized for autonomy.”
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Tesla will hold an event to give more details about Robotaxi
During the results call, Musk was asked for more information regarding the robotaxi, and he stated Tesla would hold an event next year to go into more detail, but he declined to elaborate.
At Tesla’s Texas Gigafactory Cyber Rodeo earlier this month, he hinted at the robotaxi, saying it will seem “futuristic.”
Tesla jumps 7% after crushing Q1 estimates despite supply-chain snags, and as Elon Musk promises a robotaxi within 2 years https://t.co/eyRzjMHHxN
— Markets Insider (@MktsInsider) April 21, 2022
Also in the earnings call, Musk said Tesla remains on track to reach volume production of the Cybertruck in 2023. It seems likely the company will produce more than 1.5 million vehicles this year, he added, marking an increase of 60% year-over-year.
Musk also doubled down on his remarks from Tesla’s last earnings call about the importance he ascribes to a humanoid robot the company is developing, called Optimus.
“Optimus ultimately will be worth more than the car business, worth more than FSD,” he said.
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Robotaxi has been in production for many years
Tesla’s robotaxi pursuit puts it in competition with companies that have been developing autonomous vehicle technology for robotaxis for years, including the Alphabet unit Waymo, Argo AI, Aurora, GM’s self-driving subsidiary Cruise, Motional and Zoox.
It also calls into question whether Tesla intends to scrap its current strategy to full autonomy or if this will be developed in parallel.
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Musk has been hinting at robotaxis for years, but not through a standalone product like the one he described Wednesday. Instead, he has repeatedly promised to turn the Tesla vehicles that people own today into their own robotaxi via an upgraded advanced driving assistance system called Full Self-Driving software that currently costs $12,000.