Elon Musk told Reuters that they were “lying” about their plans to stop working on the $25,000 low-cost EV and instead focus on a robotaxi. A few hours later, Musk said that the robotaxi would be shown off at an event on August 8.
The news comes at a time when Tesla EV sales have been slowing down and profits have been going down. The company and its CEO are now looking for another product to boost sales or at least the stock price.
Three anonymous sources and internal documents shared by Reuters earlier Friday said that Tesla was giving up on its plan to make a cheaper electric vehicle (EV). Instead, the company would focus on building a robotaxi on the same small electric vehicle platform that was supposed to power the cheaper vehicle.
Musk went on his own social network, X, and said that Reuters is “lying” without any proof. He didn’t argue about any specifics.
After a few hours, Musk wrote on X that the “Tesla Robotaxi” would be shown off on August 8.
For years, rumours have been going around that Tesla was working on these two cars. Walter Isaacson’s biography of Musk says that Musk hasn’t decided whether to focus on making a normal car or one without a steering wheel or pedals. This is true even though he hasn’t made a fully driverless car yet.
In mid-2022, the CEO pushed back against his engineers’ demand that they should talk about a car with a steering wheel and pedals. Lead designer Franz von Holzhausen and engineering VP Lars Moravy kept the more standard car version alive as a “shadow project,” Isaacson wrote at the time.
Musk has been saying for years that Tesla cars will be able to drive themselves. He said in 2016 that Tesla would be able to drive itself across the country by the end of 2017. That didn’t happen. He said in 2019 that the company would start its first robotaxis as part of a larger plan to build an autonomous ride-sharing network by 2020, but that also did not happen. After a few years, he said that by 2024, there would be a robotaxi on the market that didn’t have a turning wheel or pedals.
Tesla cars already have a device that helps the driver. It’s called Autopilot. For an extra $12,000. owners can get “full self-driving,” or FSD. CEO Elon Musk has been promising for years that this feature will one day allow cars to drive themselves fully autonomously. Tesla cars do not drive themselves. Instead, FSD has a number of automated driving features that still need the driver to be ready to take control at all times. These include the Summon parking feature and Navigate on Autopilot, an active guidance system that guides a car from an on-ramp to an off-ramp on a highway, including through interchanges and lane changes. The system should also be able to handle turning in city streets.
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