Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company will remove “safety monitors” from the passenger seats of Tesla’s Robotaxi vehicles in “about three weeks,” which would mean we’d see completely driverless Teslas in the Austin area potentially by the end of the year – if that timeline sticks.
Expand Expanding Close
Elon Musk announced last night that Tesla is planning to “roughly double” its Robotaxi fleet in Austin next month. While an expansion of the pilot sounds positive on the surface, a look at the actual numbers reveals that Tesla is missing its own “end of year” target by a massive margin.
Just last month, Musk explicitly stated that Tesla aimed to have 500 Robotaxis in Austin by the end of the year. Now, “doubling” the current estimated fleet suggests the actual number will be closer to 60.
Expand Expanding Close
Tesla and Waymo are currently on opposite sides of a back-and-forth regarding how to proceed with California’s autonomous ride-hailing rules, and Tesla’s filings paint a different picture of its “Robotaxi” system’s capabilities than its CEO Elon Musk has in his public statements.
Expand Expanding Close
Tesla has been granted a Transportation Network Company (TNC) permit by the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT), enabling the company to operate a paid ride-hailing service in the state officially.
This will allow Tesla to launch its ‘Robotaxi’ similarly to how it does in California – meaning with Uber drivers using Full Self-Driving Supervised (FSD).
Expand Expanding Close
A Tesla Robotaxi ‘safety driver’ in San Francisco was caught on video sleeping in the middle of a drive with a customer.
The good news is that the system did wake him up, but certainly a bit late.
Expand Expanding Close
Tesla claimed in today’s Tesla’s Q3 shareholder letter that it started a ride-hailing service in the San Francisco Bay Area “with Robotaxi technology,” but this is impossible given that the company has no license to operate an autonomous taxi in California.
Expand Expanding Close
An awkward Tesla Robotaxi incident, where the “safety monitor” had to exit the vehicle in the middle of traffic to take the driver’s seat, suggests that Elon Musk’s company is prioritizing optics over safety.
Expand Expanding Close
The time is finally here: there are actual driverless Tesla Robotaxis on the road, at least in a portion of Austin, Texas, as of this weekend. And thanks to their ridership of exclusively Tesla influencers, almost all of the miles they’ve put under their belt has been filmed or livestreamed, which gives us plenty of footage to discover what’s gone right and what’s gone wrong.
Expand Expanding Close
After plenty of delays (even as recently as this very morning), the first videos of Tesla’s Robotaxi rides are coming in and the Tesla fans that have been invited as early access users seem to have positive reviews already.
Expand Expanding Close
Tesla spent years selling its Full Self-Driving software, for as much as $15,000, with the promise that owners would be able to use that software to send their cars out as robotaxis to earn money when they’re not being used otherwise.
Just today, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that Tesla will be charging a flat fee of $4.20 for rides in its highly-supervised “robotaxi”. But that brings up the question: if Tesla spent so many years promising that you could use your car to earn money, and it’s using its cars to earn money, then why can’t you?
Expand Expanding Close
A Tesla Cybercab, or Robotaxi, Tesla has been using the names alternatively, has been spotted with a steering wheel – raising questions.
Expand Expanding Close
On today’s slightly confusing episode of Quick Charge, we’ve got a 675 hp AUDI concept that isn’t really an Audi, a self-driving Tesla hitting the roads around Giga Texas while the company pulls all the demand levers in Europe, electric garbage trucks from Mack arriving in Wisconsin, and more!
Expand Expanding Close
Tesla’s pricing numbers for its future vehicles are all over the place and changing by the minute. Just today, CEO Elon Musk revealed that the promised $30k price for Robotaxi would be “post-incentive” – before saying the car would cost $25k just minutes later.
Expand Expanding Close
Tesla’s Robotaxi event came and went last night, and we finally learned (very few) new details about the much-hyped car that CEO Elon Musk thinks will add $5 trillion to Tesla’s market capitalization.
But the main thing it left me (still) thinking is: why does this car even exist?
Expand Expanding Close
On today’s episode of Quick Charge, rumors about a new Tesla van join the hype surrounding the Robotaxi reveal, and full self driving might be coming to the Tesla Semi. What’s more, Tesla is bringing back 0% financing on new Model Ys … if you buy FSD, that is.
Expand Expanding Close
On today’s exciting episode of Quick Charge, we try to find the missing hype that usually surrounds Tesla’s new product reveals – and why five years of broken product promises mean it might not show up at all this time around.
Expand Expanding Close
It’s probably nothing. Just a playful post on social media from a random Volvo account celebrating an obscure concept car from the early aughts. It couldn’t possibly mean that Volvo is actually going to build the thing … right?
Expand Expanding Close
Tesla is gearing up for its October 10 Robotaxi unveiling, which will take place at Warner Bros. Studio, and it’s currently running a fleet of (normal) cars around the lot to map the area.
But one of the cars, photographed late yesterday by a lot employee, stands out – and it stands out because it seems to be a heavily-camouflaged version of the heretofore-not-seen Robotaxi.
Expand Expanding Close
Tesla will unveil its Robotaxi product at Warner Bros. studio in Burbank, CA, on October 10th, according to a report by Bloomberg.
Expand Expanding Close
On today’s episode of Quick Charge: a new report indicates that Elon will delay the launch of Tesla’s Robotaxi, Giga Berlin squabbles with unions, Polestar rolls out a go-fast convertible at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, and a retro-tastic Mercedes restomod that’s more Model 3 than 300 breaks cover.
Expand Expanding Close
Tesla has released a new video that includes some footage of a previously unseen vehicle interior. Could it be an early concept of the interior of the Robotaxi?
Expand Expanding Close
Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that the automaker is planning to unveil its new ‘robotaxi’, a next-generation self-driving vehicle, on August 8th.
Expand Expanding Close
A picture of a Tesla robotaxi “concept” was revealed in the new Elon Musk biography today. It is interesting, but I would also take it with a grain of salt.
Expand Expanding Close
Elon Musk released more details on Tesla’s upcoming dedicated robotaxi electric car that he announced at Cyber Rodeo earlier this month.
The vehicle will focus on cost per mile and Tesla is aiming to reach volume production of the new vehicle in 2024. Musk said that Tesla is going to provide “by far the lowest cost per that customers have ever experienced”.
Expand Expanding Close