Tesla delaying the launch of its next big thing, report says

Tesla is delaying the unveiling of its robotaxi by a couple of months, according to a Bloomberg report citing people with knowledge of the matter.

Tesla boss Elon Musk said three months ago that the robotaxi would be unveiled at a special event on August 8, but sources said the event has now been pushed to October, apparently to give engineers more time to get the prototype right.

The automaker’s robotaxi technology is expected to use multiple cameras on the car that stitch together a 360-degree view of what’s around it, along with ultrasonic sensors and a front-facing radar. Musk has previously said that the self-driving taxi will have a “futuristic” design that dispenses with a steering wheel and pedals. He also claimed that a Tesla robotaxi service will offer passengers “the lowest cost-per-mile of transport that they’ve ever experienced,” and said it could even cost “less than a bus ticket, a subsidized bus ticket, or a subsidized subway ticket.”

Launching an autonomous taxi service has long been a goal of Musk’s. He first mentioned the idea some eight years ago, and recently prioritized the ambitious endeavor over the development of an electric car that’s expected to come with a price even lower than its most affordable vehicle, the Model 3.

But it’s not the first time that a launch date linked to Tesla’s robotaxi project has slipped. In 2019, for example, Musk said Tesla would deploy autonomous robotaxis in 2020. And two years ago, the Tesla chief said the vehicle would be mass produced this year, something that clearly isn’t going to happen.

What it has managed to do is offer a preview of the robotaxi’s ridesharing feature for the Tesla app. Screenshots revealed that is has many of the features that come with regular ridesharing apps, including a map showing your vehicle heading to the pickup spot. The rider will also be able to do things like adjust the robotaxi’s interior temperature to the desired setting before the vehicle arrives.

Ultimately, it will be regulators who decide where and when Tesla can roll out a robotaxi service. Competing companies like Waymo and Cruise have faced huge challenges in setting up their limited ridesharing services in a few states, and Uber gave up on its plan to offer the same kind of autonomous service in 2020, two years after one of its cars fatally struck a pedestrian in Arizona.