Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer of Tesla and owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, attends the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, June 16, 2023.
Gonzalo Fuentes | Reuters
Tesla will reveal its robotaxi product on Aug. 8, CEO Elon Musk said in a social media post on X.
Musk has spoken about the robotaxi project for years, and it could represent a major new business for the carmaker as investors grow wary of the company during a period of slowing growth.
Musk shared the release date on Friday after Reuters reported plans for its highly anticipated low-cost car model have been scrapped.
Tesla’s robotaxi project, according to past Musk remarks, would allow Teslas to use self-driving technology to autonomously go around and pick up riders for fares. In 2019, Musk said that he expected to have over 1 million robotaxis on the road by 2020.
There is significant competition in the market for taxi services that use self-driving cars.
Alphabet’s autonomous vehicle unit Waymo operates driverless ride-hailing services in Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and is now ramping up in Tesla’s home base of Austin, Texas.
GM’s Cruise service previously offered self-driving car services in San Francisco before being wound down under regulatory scrutiny after an accident. Since the incident, Cruise’s robotaxi fleet has been grounded, local and federal governments have launched their own investigations and Cruise leadership has been gutted.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
