Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed on Monday that the company needs additional time to prepare for the robotaxi presentation, so the event has been postponed from August to October. Musk announced this on the social network X, pointing out the need to change the front part of the electric car. He also added that the company needs time to prepare “and some other new things,” without specifying what he was talking about.
Image Source: Tesla
With his statement, Musk confirmed an earlier report from Bloomberg that Tesla had decided to postpone the robotaxi presentation to a later date. At that time, the publication stated that the company needed more time to assemble additional prototypes of the machine. The publication added that the message about the delay of the event was sent out within the company. It also said that the robotaxi team needed to “rework some elements of the car.”
Elon Musk announced plans to introduce Tesla Robotaxi on August 8 back in April. On the same day, Reuters reported that the company abandoned its $25,000 budget electric car project and focused entirely on developing robotaxis. Musk denied this report.
A few weeks after the Reuters publication, Tesla underwent large-scale layoffs. The company laid off more than 10 percent of its 140,000-strong workforce. Two weeks later, two top managers left Tesla, and Musk told employees that the company “needs to be absolutely tough on headcount and cost reduction.” He added: “While some leaders take this seriously, most have not yet realized it.”
In the first half of 2024, Tesla delivered almost 7% fewer electric vehicles and produced almost 15% fewer cars in the second quarter than in the same periods last year.