Tesla had plans for a more affordable electric car, but those appear to have changed in favor of a robotaxi model, announced for the summer.
Elon Musk announced the introduction of the Tesla's robotaxi servicesetting the event forAugust 8.
This came moments after the CEO rejected Reuters' allegations that he had abandoned plans to make an affordable electric car in favor of the aforementioned project.
The announcement comes at a time when sales of Tesla electric cars have shown a slowdown profits have decreasedprompting both the company and its CEO to look for new opportunities to drive sales, or at least stock value.
Robotaxi revealed
Reuters report indicates that Tesla has abandoned plans to build acheap electric carlong promised and with an estimated price starting at $25,000.
Elon Musk had recently expressed optimism regarding the possible introduction of this by the second half of 2025.
At the moment, Model 3 represents Tesla's most accessible vehicle, with a starting price of $39,000.
According to the report, based on anonymous sources and internal documents, Tesla had decided instead to focus resources on a robotaxi developed on the same compact EV platform.
Musk used his X profile for a sudden “U-turn”: a first post denied what was stated in the report, while the second reports the short, yet eloquent, announcement dated August 8th.
Rumors about both projects, the affordable electric car and the robotaxi, have been circulating for years, with Musk's priorities seeming to swing sometimes towards one and sometimes towards the other.
This ambiguity was also documented in Walter Isaacson's biography of Musk, which described internal tensions over the direction of projects.
Automatic pilot
Tesla hasn't made a car without a steering wheel or pedals yet.
Owners have the option to purchase the “full self-driving” (FSD) package for $12,000, which promises fully autonomous driving capabilities over time.
However, at the moment Tesla cars are not autonomous, although equipped with driving assistance system as standard, Autopilot.
Both the latter and the FSD offer only automated driving features, i.e. they still require driver intervention, such as the Summon parking function and Navigate on Autopilot, which manages the car from a motorway entrance to an exit, but always under the supervision of the driver.
However, it appears that the company has adopted a new approach to operate his robotaxi.
It would eliminate radar and other sensors from its driver assistance technologies, opting instead for a system based exclusively on camerasa move that differs from solutions adopted by other robotaxi companies such as Waymo.
Elon Musk has long promised that Tesla vehicles would be capable of self-driving. Over the years, announcements have been made regarding the possibility of fully autonomous driving on city streets by the end of 2017, and the idea of the first robotaxis was announced in 2020. However, none of these goals have been achieved.
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