Tesla has postponed the presentation of an unmanned robotaxi, which was supposed to take place next month, Bloomberg writes, citing sources close to the matter. The event was originally scheduled for August 8th. It has reportedly been pushed back to October. The company itself and its representatives have not yet made a statement on this matter.
Image Source: Tesla
According to Bloomberg sources, Tesla decided to postpone the robotaxi announcement to a later date because the project team needs additional time to assemble prototypes. Amid Bloomberg’s report, Tesla shares fell by 8.4%.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk came up with the idea of creating a robotaxi back in 2016. In April of this year, he hinted at the upcoming announcement of a new platform. At the same time, Reuters, citing sources at Tesla, reported that the company abandoned the development of affordable electric vehicles costing about $25 thousand, the release of which Musk had promised for a long time. Musk himself denied this message through his page on his social network X.
According to the TechCrunch portal, Tesla initially wanted to develop both a robotaxi and an electric car worth $25 thousand, which fans nicknamed Model 2. It is reported that both developments were supposed to use the same platform. However, reports later began to appear that Musk abandoned the idea of creating a new electric car with a steering wheel and pedals, and instead shifted his interest towards a fully autonomous robotaxi.
Just weeks after Musk announced the robotaxi event, he cut more than 10% of Tesla’s workforce and said the company was “fighting tooth and nail for full autonomy.”
Musk often surprises even his own employees with his public announcements. For example, in February he said that the long-awaited second-generation Tesla Roadster sports car would be even faster than originally promised. According to The Information, this announcement surprised the Roadster development team, which heard about it for the first time.
The robotaxi event, originally scheduled for August, also caught Tesla teams working on the project by surprise, one of the people said.