Amid news of Tesla’s first year-over-year sales decline since 2020, the electric car company is setting the scene for a unique product launch.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted on X that the company will unveil its first robotaxi on August 8. However, the unveiling date does not mean that’s when deliveries will begin — the first deliveries of another Tesla product, the Cybertruck, arrived years after its unveiling.
Tesla’s first autonomous taxi will join a market that already features offerings from competitors such as Waymo, an independent company that started as Google’s self-driving car project, and Cruise, General Motors’ company.
Tesla Robotaxi unveil on 8/8
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2024
Musk, who owns X and is the most-followed person on the platform, shared the news with 180 million followers.
A Waymo autonomous self-driving Jaguar taxi on March 14, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Reuters reported on Friday that Tesla had decided to shift its strategy away from a $25,000 entry-level electric car and towards self-driving cars instead, a report that Musk disputed in a “Reuters is lying (again)” post on X. Musk did not clarify which part of the article was inaccurate.
Related: Tesla Sales, Deliveries Drop for First Time Since 2020
A Reuters analysis from Saturday showed that robotaxis could be riskier, and more complex, to create. A robotaxi from G.M.’s Cruise was involved in an accident in October, resulting in widespread scrutiny of the company and a recall of the company’s driverless robotaxis. Cruise was preparing to resume operations as of February, according to Bloomberg.
In February, a driverless Waymo car hit a cyclist in San Francisco.
“We are deeply concerned that more people will be killed, more first responders will be obstructed, more sudden stops will happen,” Cathy Chase, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, told the MIT Technology Review. “We are not against autonomous vehicles. We are concerned about the unsafe deployment and a rush to the market at the expense of the traveling public.”
Tesla last released a new model in 2019 with the Cybertruck.