Tesla CEO Elon Musk has once again stirred up excitement and skepticism with his latest announcement of an upcoming Tesla Robotaxi unveiling on August 8, 2024, despite a history of unfulfilled promises surrounding the currently non-existent “robotaxi” service.
Gizmodo reports that in a tweet on Friday, Elon Musk declared, “Tesla Robotaxi unveil on 8/8,” without providing any further details. This announcement comes on the heels of a Reuters report earlier in the day, which claimed that Tesla was abandoning plans for a low-cost electric vehicle in favor of focusing on the development of a robotaxi. Musk denied the accuracy of the Reuters report, insisting that the news outlet had its facts wrong.
This is not the first time Musk has made bold promises about the imminent arrival of Tesla robotaxis. In April 2020, he tweeted, “Functionality still looking good for this year. Regulatory approval is the big unknown,” suggesting that the only obstacle to the launch of robotaxis was regulatory approval. However, more than four years later, Tesla has yet to deliver on this promise.
Elon Musk and Xi Jinping (Elon Musk/Twitter)
According to Reuters, Tesla’s decision to pivot away from a $25,000 vehicle to an autonomous taxi service presents significant challenges. The news agency cited anonymous sources who revealed that the plan was announced to scores of employees in a meeting in late February, with one source quoting Musk’s directive to “go all in on robotaxi.”
The Reuters report also highlighted the intense competition Tesla faces from Chinese electric-vehicle manufacturers, who are flooding the market with cars priced as low as $10,000. Developing a fully autonomous robotaxi service is a complex engineering challenge that comes with considerable regulatory risks.
Musk’s track record of overpromising and underdelivering on technological advancements — particularly the robotaxi service which Musk announced five years ago — has led to skepticism among industry experts and the public. In the summer of 2021, Musk unveiled Tesla’s humanoid robot, Optimus, which turned out to be a human dressed in a robot costume. Although Tesla has since developed an actual robot, it still lags behind its competitors in the robotics field.
Read more at Gizmodo here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
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