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 an alternative 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 sales have lagged and earnings have fallen, leaving the corporate and its CEO on a seek for one other product to spice up gross sales — or not less than 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 an alternative focus sources on a deliberate robotaxi that’s being constructed on the identical small EV platform that was additionally alleged 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.

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

The CEO  pushed again in mid-2022 in opposition to his engineers’ insistence on referencing a automobile with a steering wheel and pedals. And at the same time as he pressed forward, lead designer Franz von Holzhausen and engineering VP Lars Moravy saved the extra conventional automobile model alive as a “shadow undertaking,” 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 network 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 further $12,000, homeowners can purchase “full self-driving,” or FSD — a characteristic that CEO Elon Musk has promised for years will at some point ship full autonomous driving capabilities. Tesla autos are not self-driving. As a substitute, FSD consists of a variety of automated driving options that also require the motive force to be able to take management always, together with the parking characteristic Summon, in addition to Navigate on Autopilot, an lively steering system that navigates a automobile from a freeway on-ramp to off-ramp, together with interchanges and making lane adjustments. The system can also be alleged to deal with steering on metropolis streets.