Elon Musk says he’ll unveil a Tesla robotaxi on August 8

Simply hours after Elon Musk claimed Reuters was “mendacity” about plans to ditch its $25,000 low value EV and as a substitute focus all its efforts on a robotaxi, the Tesla CEO introduced on X that he would reveal mentioned robotaxi in an occasion on August 8.

The announcement comes as Tesla EV gross sales have lagged and income have fallen, leaving the corporate and its CEO on a seek for one other product to spice up gross sales — or a minimum of the inventory worth.

Earlier Friday, a Reuters report citing three nameless sources and inner paperwork mentioned that Tesla was abandoning its plan to construct a lower-cost EV and would as a substitute focus sources on a deliberate robotaxi that’s being constructed on the identical small EV platform that was additionally presupposed to energy the lower-cost automobile.

Musk took to X, the social community he owns, and claimed with out proof, that Reuters is “mendacity.” He didn’t dispute any particular particulars.

Hours later, Musk posted on X {that a} “Tesla Robotaxi” can be unveiled August 8.

Stories have swirled for years that Tesla was engaged on these two autos. However Musk has wavered on whether or not to prioritize a typical automotive or one with no steering wheel or pedals, regardless of not having but produced a completely autonomous automotive, in response to descriptions in Walter Isaacson’s biography of Musk.

The CEO  pushed again in mid-2022 towards his engineers’ insistence on referencing a automotive with a steering wheel and pedals. And whilst he pressed forward, lead designer Franz von Holzhausen and engineering VP Lars Moravy stored the extra conventional automotive model alive as a “shadow mission,” Isaacson wrote on the time.

Musk has been promising autonomous capabilities in Tesla autos for years. In 2016, he mentioned Tesla would drive itself cross-country by the end of 2017 (it didn’t occur).  In 2019, he promised to launch the corporate’s first robotaxis as a part of broader imaginative and prescient for an autonomous ride-sharing community in 2020 (that additionally didn’t occur). Just a few years later, he mentioned a devoted robotaxi with no steering wheel or pedals would come to market by 2024.

Tesla autos come commonplace with a driver-assistance system branded as Autopilot. For an extra $12,000, house owners should buy “full self-driving,” or FSD — a function that CEO Elon Musk has promised for years will in the future ship full autonomous driving capabilities. Tesla autos usually are not self-driving. As a substitute, FSD consists of plenty of automated driving options that also require the motive force to be able to take management always, together with the parking function Summon, in addition to Navigate on Autopilot, an energetic steering system that navigates a automotive from a freeway on-ramp to off-ramp, together with interchanges and making lane modifications. The system can be presupposed to deal with steering on metropolis streets.