Elon Musk mentioned he’ll exhibit Tesla’s purpose-built “self-driving taxi” prototype at an occasion on October 10, after canceling his earlier plans to unveil it on August 8.
The feedback, made throughout Tesla’s second-quarter earnings name on Tuesday, largely affirm Bloomberg’s preliminary reporting on the delays, which included that the delays had been pushed by Musk’s need to revamp sure components of the prototype. . Musk confirmed earlier this month that he requested “important adjustments to the entrance design.”
“Delaying it by a number of months permits us to enhance the robotaxi and add another content material to the product launch,” Musk mentioned on the decision.
Tesla’s robotaxis — and the “unsupervised” absolutely self-driving software program that Musk says will run them — are central to the corporate’s future. Earlier this 12 months, he laid off greater than 10% of Tesla’s world workforce to restructure the corporate to develop synthetic intelligence-driven merchandise, together with an “all-out effort” to advance autonomous driving know-how.
However that synthetic intelligence-centric future is clashing with the corporate’s fundamental revenue heart of promoting electrical autos. Tesla reported revenue of $1.5 billion within the second quarter of 2024 on Tuesday, down 45% from the identical interval final 12 months. Whereas Tesla reported $622 million in restructuring expenses as a drag on its backside line, report regulatory credit score gross sales of $890 million greater than made up for it. Though whole income elevated 2% yearly, automotive income fell 7% to $19.9 billion.
Tesla obtained off to a foul begin this 12 months, with first-quarter earnings falling 55% year-over-year.
The corporate is at the moment contemplating that EV gross sales in 2024 could also be decrease than in 2023, which might be a shocking reversal from its earlier development trajectory. Tesla is pinning its hopes for extra gross sales on the brand new (however polarizing and costly) Cybertruck and probably decrease advised retail costs by telling traders it is between “two main development waves.” Worth on mysterious future automobile on the market.
Nevertheless, in keeping with Musk, it is all “within the noise.” He emphasised on Tuesday’s convention name that Tesla’s long-term worth lies in autonomy, and autonomy alone. That features the corporate’s humanoid robotic venture referred to as Optimus, which was secretly delayed this week. But it surely principally revolves round Musk’s longest unfulfilled promise: self-driving automobiles.
With this in thoughts, Musk is making an attempt to focus traders’ consideration on the October 10 occasion. Little is thought to the general public about what Tesla will reveal, though Walter Isaacson’s 2023 biography of Musk confirmed off an illustration of a small robotaxi prototype.
Musk has mentioned the car can be accessible to folks by Tesla’s app, much like how Uber and Lyft function. He additionally claims that after Tesla’s absolutely self-driving software program is superior sufficient to deal with all driving conditions, Tesla house owners will be capable to put their automobiles on the sharing community – which, regardless of the identify, is much from it. obtain this aim.
Regardless of years of guarantees, Musk has struggled to implement the thought of absolutely self-driving automobiles, leading to Tesla being sued by automobile house owners and investigated by quite a few authorities companies.
When requested when Tesla would be capable to supply its first unsupervised robotaxi service, Musk mentioned he believed it will be doable by the tip of this 12 months. However he added that this might additionally occur in 2025 and that he was “overly optimistic” in his prediction.
This text has been up to date to incorporate extra particulars from Tesla’s second-quarter earnings name. This text was initially revealed at 2:45 PM PT.
