The reveal of Elon Musk’s Tesla Robotaxi is full of lofty promises

During an event at a Warner Bros. studio. Discovery (WBD) in Burbank, California yesterday (October 10), Elon Musk unveiled Tesla’s (TSLA) long-awaited robotaxi and the company’s vision for autonomous vehicles. The event was filled with flashy tickets, bartending robots, and lofty promises, but failed to offer concrete timelines and details.

Musk began the presentation by driving around the Warner Bros. studio. Discovery in Burbank, Calif., in a prototype “Cybercab,” a sleek two-door autonomous taxi with no steering wheel or pedals. “It’s going to be a glorious future,” said the Tesla CEO, who later touted the potential impact of robotaxis on productivity, driving safety and green space.

Self-driving cars will become ten times safer than vehicles driven by humans, claimed Musk, who said the arrival of autonomous vehicles will reduce the need for parking lots and free up space for parks in cities around the world. Unsupervised Full Autonomous Driving (FSD), a future version of FSD that will be fully autonomous and therefore classified as Level 3 or higher autonomous driving, will be deployed on Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y in Texas and California next year and will expand. based on regulatory approval, Musk said. Meanwhile, the Cybercab will begin production in 2026 with a price tag under $30,000, making them more affordable than the Model 3, which starts around $43,000.

Despite Tesla’s glamorous presentation, investors seemed unimpressed by the company’s ability to compete against robotaxi rivals like Alphabet’s ( GOOGL ) Waymo. Tesla shares are down nearly 8 percent today (October 11). “The company’s latest version of Full Self-Driving travels 71 miles between critical disconnects, in contrast to Waymo’s 17,311 miles,” said Dan O’Dowd, a software entrepreneur and Tesla critic, in an emailed statement electronic to Observer. “Elon Musk is trying to race the Tour de France on a tricycle”.

Some analysts, however, hailed Tesla’s robotaxi as a key moment in the electric vehicle maker’s transition to autonomous driving. Yesterday’s event will “mark the turning point” in Tesla’s journey to become a broader player in AI, robotics and disruptive technology, Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said in an investor note. Products unveiled at the event could account for up to 20 percent of Tesla’s global profits by the end of the decade, he estimated.

Can Tesla really deliver full autonomous driving?

But that’s whether Musk can actually deliver on his promises. The billionaire has been setting a timetable for Level 3 autonomous driving for years. Earlier this year, for example, he suggested that an unsupervised FSD could hit the road by the end of 2024. The company’s most recent plans to market autonomous vehicles have been “vague” and “disappointing,” Raymond James’ Josh Beck said in an analyst note. note, highlighting the company’s “ambitious times”.

During yesterday’s event, Musk repeated other statements he has made in the past, stating that Tesla users could soon fall asleep at the wheel and wake up to their destiny, a statement he made in 2019.” Musk’s rhetoric on We Robot is just a tired rehash of the same broken promises he made five years ago on Independence Day,” O’Dowd said.

In addition to showing off the Cybercab, Musk unveiled another autonomous Tesla prototype known as the Robovan that can carry up to 20 people and was presented without details on timing or pricing. He also unveiled a set of humanoid robots Tesla is working on that will eventually be available for less than $20,000 to $30,000 and can act as “your own personal R2-D2,” referring to a robot character of fiction of Star Wars. Known as Optimus, the robots will be able to babysit, walk dogs, mow lawns and do groceries, said Musk, who described them as “the biggest product ever” and will be sought after by all “8 billion people of the Earth”. “