Elon Musk’s robotaxi fantasy is starting to unravel
1 min read
Summary
Following Tesla’s latest earnings call on Wednesday, CEO Elon Musk made more ambitious predictions regarding the future of the electric vehicle (EV) maker and its autonomous vehicles.
Musk promised “millions” of fully autonomous Tesla EV taxis on roads by the end of next year and sleeping passengers waking up at their destinations by the end of this year.
However, he also trimmed his pledges, with Musk acknowledging limitations to areas in which the EV taxis could operate, such as not being able to drive through a “blizzard in Manhattan.”
Also, the EV maker will need to overcome rivalry from the likes of Waymo, which is currently deploying 200,000 autonomous taxi trips every week using a variety of sensors, including lidar, radar and ultrasonic sensors, which Musk has previously derided.
Lastly, regulatory hurdles could also prove problematic for Musk’s vision, as Tesla’s EVs are presently unable to operate on public roads, and the company is facing an Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigation over claims that it made over its self-driving technology.