Tesla's Q2 earnings presentation listed products in production and development, and interesting enough, Robo-Taxi appears on the last line as being 'in development.'
The product was not mentioned during this quarter's earnings call, but Robo-Taxi could not be missed in the report to investors.
In April, Elon Musk said, “But it’s fundamentally optimized to achieve the lowest fully considered cost per mile or cost per kilometer, accounting for everything. And so it’s, I think, going to be a very powerful product.”
Musk says his vision of Robo-Taxi
is a fully autonomous vehicle without a steering wheel or pedals, and he thinks it could be coming soon. “Where we aspire to reach volume production of that in 2024. So, I think that really will be a massive driver of Tesla’s growth.”
Tesla lists the Robo-Taxi as being in development
Tesla
Of course, for Robo-Taxi to succeed, Full Self Driving (FSD) will have to be completely functional, which is closer to reality, according to the CEO. “We have now deployed our FSD beta with city streets driving capability to over 100,000 owners.
They are very happy with the capability of the system, and we will continue to improve it every week.” Musk says Tesla has now driven more than 35 million miles with the beta FSD. He believes that is more miles than all other vehicle manufacturers combined, “so, that mileage is growing exponentially.” said Musk.
The in-development project explains recent comments Musk made to the Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley interview (interview below).
Elon said FSD is the difference between the company being worth a lot or not very much. “Autonomy is a monumental breakthrough,” said Musk.
He also spoke candidly about FSD, “the sheer amount of work required to do this boggles the mind.” Musk admitted FSD is a bigger challenge than he originally predicted, “I’ve seen a lot of tough technology problems and solving real-world AI such that a car can drive itself is one of the hardest problems I’ve ever seen. It is way harder than I originally thought, by far.”
Even admitting how complex and challenging FSD is, Musk is still confident that it will be fully operational this year. If that happens, Robo-Taxis will be hailed soon as well.
It turns out that the big undocumented change in Tesla update 2024.32 that disables the 12V power and USB ports while Sentry Mode is active is not a bug but an intentional change.
A fan contacted Tesla Service to see if the change was intentional and what the reason behind the change was. Surprisingly, they received a response pretty quickly.
No 12V Power Access
Tesla has decided to restrict 12V power access for safety reasons—namely, to “reduce the likelihood of thermal events” when third-party devices are left powered on without users present. Tesla reached out to the fan in question by phone, and they seemed to be sticking to that line.
It seems that Tesla is resolute that it was due to safety reasons and that the change would not be “fixed” or allowed in a future software update – as this was an intentional change for safety reasons.
Other sources have reported that the change was due to potential misuse of the 12V power access, with people wiring 1200w microwaves and kettles or jury-rigging 240v to 120v adapters, which had apparently been the cause of multiple fires in Tesla vehicles within China.
Workarounds
Thankfully, for those who camp or need to keep their sub-trunk fridges powered while still having security in their vehicles, there is a simple, although inconvenient, workaround. You can enable Camp Mode, then manually lock your car (since Camp Mode turns off walk-away door locking) and turn off climate controls from the app.
While Sentry will NOT be active with this workaround, the car's power sockets remain powered. While this workaround is fine to use occasionally, it’ll be tiresome for those who use a fridge regularly.
We’re still hoping Tesla considers bringing the Cybertruck’s Power Control menu to the rest of its vehicles and is somehow able to limit the max draw from these outlets to prevent dangerous situations.
With the Robotaxi event just a day away, we thought it would be a fun idea to run a contest to predict what Tesla will announce tomorrow evening.
We’ve outlined a list of questions below; simply answer them on our forums or social media (X or Threads), and be entered for a chance to win some great prizes.
The individuals who have the most correct answers will win one of five prizes mentioned below. If more than five people get them all right, a random drawing will be held from the pool of winners.
We’ll reach out to the winners either by email or by DM on social media.
The Questions
Will Tesla let attendees experience Robotaxi at the event?
Will Tesla first start the network with human supervision (ridesharing), or with Robotaxis only?
What year will the network start? When will it become fully autonomous? (if announced)
When will Robotaxi production begin? (if announced)
Will it be Robotaxi or Cybercab?
Which of these Robotaxi Concepts will be the closest to the one announced?
Will Robotaxi include:
Front-facing camera?
Stainless-steel body?
Steer-by-Wire or No Steering Wheel? (if announced)
Which current Tesla model has the most similar door-opening mechanism?
How many seats will the robotaxi have?
Will the robotaxi include AI5/Hardware 5, HW4 or something completely different?
Where will Tesla’s first Rideshare/Robotaxi location be established?
Will customers be able to purchase a Robotaxi?
Requirements
Please use the template below to answer the questions on social media or in our forums. You can post your answer as a comment to our forums, to our X post, or to our Threads post.
Once you do that, repost or quote post your favorite article from us.
1. Yes
2. Ridesharing
3. 2025/2027
4. 2025
5. Cybercab
6. Dominic's
7. Yes, Yes, SBW, No, 2
8. HW5
9. LA
10. Yes
Prizes
Prizes are generously provided by Enhance and Jowua, makers of some of the best Tesla accessories and amazing Tesla community members. Prizes will be mailed out directly by them. Winners will get to choose their prize from the list below. First place will have the first pick and so on. There will be five winners in total.
S3XY Buttons (including a commander and wiring)
S3XY Knob for Model 3/Y
Tesla Gaming Controller - Multi-Device Wireless Controller (Wireless Charging)
Tesla Gaming Controller - Multi-Device Wireless Controller (Wireless Charging)
Tesla Gaming Controller - Multi-Device Wireless Controller (Wireless Charging)
Disclaimer
This is a Tesla event, and Tesla normally likes to hold their cards close to their chest. If an answer is ambiguous, we’ll go with the best choice decided by our staff. We’ll do our best to be fair. This
With all that said, we wish our entrants the best of luck, and we’ll announce the winners at the end of the week.