Tesla Robotaxi: Unveil Date and Everything Else You Want to Know

Tesla to develop their own autonomous taxi

The Boring Company

We have been hearing about Tesla’s Robotaxi concept for several years, but it seems like we may finally be getting close to this vehicle becoming a reality. Here is everything we know about the Robotaxi.

Official Reveal

Yesterday, Musk officially announced on X that Tesla would unveil the Tesla Robotaxi on August 8th, 2024. Tesla last unveiled a new vehicle back in November 2019 when they showed off the Cybertruck for the first time. Before that, they unveiled the Roadster 2.0 and the Tesla Semi at the same event in 2017, so these certainly special times that only come across once every few years.

While it's always possible that Tesla may have to move the Robotaxi's unveil date, it's exciting to think that Tesla may be just four months from unveiling this next-gen vehicle.

Robotaxi and Next-gen Vehicle

Another piece of information came out about the Robotaxi yesterday when Musk reply to the post by Sawyer Merritt. Sawyer posted that Tesla's upcoming "$25k" vehicle and the Robotaxi would not only be based on the same platform, but that the Robotaxi would essentially be the same vehicle without a steering wheel. Musk replied to the post with a simple "looking" emoji.

While it's not surprising that two of Tesla's smaller upcoming vehicles are going to be built on the same platform, it's a little more interesting that Musk chose to reply with that emoji when the post talks about the Robotaxi being the "Model 2" without a steering wheel. This leads to the possibility of Tesla not only showing off the Robotaxi at the August 8th event, but also it's upcoming next-gen car.

Production Date

Back during Tesla's Q1 2022 earnings call, Musk talked a little about the timeline for Tesla's Robotaxi, stating that they plan to announce the vehicle in 2023 and begin mass production in 2024.

Given that Tesla was originally aiming for a 2023 unveil, a late 2024 date appears realistic. However, now it appears that the Robotaxi and the next-gen vehicle will share a lot in common, meaning that a production date for the Robotaxi can be similar to the next-gen vehicle, which is currently slated to begin in "late 2025".

The difficulty in releasing an autonomous taxi, as the Robotaxi is meant to be, is the self-driving aspect. While Tesla has made great strides with FSD v12, the first version to come out of "beta," it's still a level-2 system that requires active driver supervision. A fully autonomous vehicle is still a big leap from where Tesla's FSD is right now, but as we saw with the jump from FSD v11 to v12, a lot can change in the next 18 to 24 months.

While we expect Tesla to remain focused on bringing its cheaper, next-gen vehicle to market ahead of potential competitors, the Robotaxi's production date can continue to shift in line with Tesla's progress on FSD.

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— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2024

Master Plan Part Deux

The history of Tesla’s Robotaxi starts with CEO Elon Musk's Master Plan Part Deux, published in 2016.

At the time the concept was touted as normal Teslas with full self-driving (FSD) capability.

Once Tesla achieved Full Self-Driving, they would create a “Tesla Network” taxi service that would make use of both Tesla-owned vehicles and customer cars that would be hired out when not in use.

In April 2022, however, at the inauguration of Tesla’s new factory in Austin, Texas, Musk made headlines by announcing that the company would be working on a dedicated Robotaxi vehicle that would be “quite futuristic-looking”.

A Variety of Robotaxis

Once we get to a world of "robotaxis," it makes sense to continue evolving the interior of the vehicle to suit customer needs such as adding face-to-face seating, big sliding doors providing easy access, 4-wheel steering, easier cleaning, etc.

Tesla could even create a variety of Robotaxis that help meet specific needs. For example, Tesla could offer a vehicle that is better suited for resting, which could let you sleep on the way to your destination.

Another vehicle could be similar to a home office, offering multiple monitors and accessories that let you begin working as soon as you step inside the vehicle. Features such as these could bring huge quality of life improvements for some; giving people an hour or more back in their day.

The variety of Robotaxis doesn't need to end there. There could be other vehicles that are made specifically for entertainment such as watching a movie, or others that allow you to relax and converse with friends, much like you'd expect in a limousine.

Lowest Cost Per Mile

During Tesla's Q1 2022 financial results call, Musk stated that its robotaxi would be focused on cost per mile, and would be highly optimized for autonomy - essentially confirming that it will not include a steering wheel.

“There are a number of other innovations around it that I think are quite exciting, but it is fundamentally optimized to achieve the lowest fully considered cost per mile or km when counting everything”, he said.

During the call, Tesla acknowledged that its vehicles are largely inaccessible for many people given their high cost and he sees the introduction of Robotaxis as a way of providing customers with “by far the lowest cost-per-mile of transport that they’ve ever experienced. The CEO believes that the vehicle is going to result in a cost per mile cheaper than a subsidized bus ticket. If Tesla can achieve this, it could drastically change the entire automotive industry and redefine car ownership. Is Tesla's future still in selling vehicles or providing a robotaxi service?

FSD Sensor Suite

Tesla hasn't revealed anything about the sensor suite that they're considering for the robotaxi, but given all of their work in vision and progress in FSD, it's expected to be the same or similar to what is available today, potentially with additional cameras or faster processing.

However, back in 2022, Musk gave this warning: “With respect to full self-driving, of any technology development I’ve been involved in, I’ve never really seen more false dawns or where it seems like we’re going to break through, but we don’t, as I’ve seen in full self-driving,” said Musk. “And ultimately what it comes down to is that to sell full self-driving, you actually have to solve real-world artificial intelligence, which nobody has solved. The whole road system is made for biological neural nets and eyes. And so actually, when you think about it, in order to solve driving, we have to solve neural nets and cameras to a degree of capability that is on par with, or really exceeds humans. And I think we will achieve that this year.”

With the Robotaxi unveil now approaching, it may not be long before we find out more details about Tesla's plan for the future and its truly autonomous vehicles.

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Tesla’s Optimus Robot Learns to Walk Without Vision [VIDEO]

Optimus Falls - but catches itself!

Not a Tesla App

Tesla recently showed off a demo of Optimus, its humanoid robot, walking around in moderately challenging terrain—not on a flat surface but on dirt and slopes. These things can be difficult for a humanoid robot, especially during the training cycle.

Daily walks help clear your mind pic.twitter.com/dUsW58trS6

— Tesla Optimus (@Tesla_Optimus) December 9, 2024

A Look Behind the Curtain

Most interestingly, Milan Kovac, VP of Engineering for Optimus, clarified what it takes to get Optimus to this stage. Let’s break down what he said.

Optimus is Blind

Optimus is getting seriously good at walking now - it can keep its balance over uneven ground - even while walking blind. Tesla is currently using just the sensors, all powered by a neural net running on the embedded computer. 

Essentially, Tesla is building Optimus from the ground up, relying on as much additional data as possible while it trains vision. This is similar to how they train FSD on vehicles, using LiDAR rigs to validate the vision system’s accuracy. While Optimus doesn’t have LiDAR, it relies on all those other sensors on board, many of which will likely become simplified as vision takes over as the primary sensor.

Today, Optimus is walking blind, but it’s able to react almost instantly to changes in the terrain underneath it, even if it falls or slips. 

What’s Next?

Next up, Tesla AI will be adding vision to Optimus - helping complete the neural net. Remember, Optimus runs on the same overall AI stack as FSD - in fact, Optimus uses an FSD computer and an offshoot of the FSD stack for vision-based tasks.

Milan mentions they’re planning on adding vision to help the robot plan ahead and improve its walking gait. While the zombie shuffle is iconic and a little bit amusing, getting humanoid robots to walk like humans is actually difficult.

There’s plenty more, too - including better responsiveness to velocity and direction commands and learning to fall and stand back up. Falling while protecting yourself to minimize damage is something natural to humans - but not exactly natural to something like a robot. Training it to do so is essential in keeping the robot, the environment around it, and the people it is interacting with safe.

We’re excited to see what’s coming with Optimus next because it is already getting started in some fashion in Tesla’s factories.

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Is Tesla Close to Licensing FSD? GM Quits Cruise, BMW Praises Tesla

Not a Tesla App

In a relatively surprising move, GM announced that it is realigning its autonomy strategy and prioritizing advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) over fully autonomous vehicles.

GM is effectively closing Cruise (autonomous) and focusing on its Super Cruise (ADAS) feature. The engineering teams at Cruise will join the GM teams working on Super Cruise, effectively shuttering the fully autonomous vehicle business.

End of Cruise

GM cites that “an increasingly competitive robotaxi market” and “considerable time and resources” are required for scaling the business to a profitable level. Essentially - they’re unable to keep up with competitors at current funding and research levels, putting them further and further behind.

Cruise has been offering driverless rides in several cities, using HD mapping of cities alongside vehicles equipped with a dazzling array of over 40 sensors. That means that each cruise vehicle is essentially a massive investment and does not turn a profit while collecting data to work towards Autonomy.

Cruise has definitely been on the back burner for a while, and a quick glance at their website - since it's still up for now - shows the last time they officially released any sort of major news packet was back in 2019. 

Competition is Killer

Their current direct competitor - Waymo, is funded by Google, which maintains a direct interest in ensuring they have a play in the AI and autonomy space.

Interestingly, this news comes just a month after Tesla’s We, Robot event, where they showed off the Cybercab and the Robotaxi network, as well as plans to begin deployment of the network and Unsupervised FSD sometime in 2025. Tesla is already in talks with some cities in California and Texas to launch Robotaxi in 2025.

GM Admits Tesla Has the Right Strategy

As part of the business call following the announcement, GM admitted that Tesla’s end-to-end and Vision-based approach towards autonomy is the right strategy. While they say Cruise started down that path, they’re putting aside their goals towards fully autonomous vehicles for now and focusing on introducing that tech in Super Cruise instead.

NEWS: GM just admitted that @Tesla’s end-to-end approach to autonomy is the right strategy.

“That’s where the industry is pivoting. Cruise had already started making headway down that path. We are moving to a foundation model and end-to-end approach going forward.” pic.twitter.com/ACs5SFKUc3

— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) December 10, 2024

With GM now focusing on Super Cruise, they’ll put aside autonomy and instead focus solely on ADAS features to relieve driver stress and improve safety. While those are positive goals that will benefit all road users, full autonomy is really the key to removing the massive impact that vehicle accidents have on society today.

In addition, Super Cruise is extremely limited, cannot brake for traffic controls, and doesn’t work in adverse conditions - even rain. It can only function when lane markings are clear, there are no construction zones, and there is a functional web connection. 

The final key to the picture is that the vehicle has to be on an HD-mapped and compatible highway - essentially locking Super Cruise to wherever GM has time to spend mapping, rather than being functional anywhere in a general sense, like FSD or Autopilot.

Others Impressed - Licensing FSD

Interestingly, some other manufacturers have also weighed into the demise of Cruise. BMW, in a now-deleted post, said that a demo of Tesla’s FSD is “very impressive.” There’s a distinct chance that BMW and other manufacturers are looking to see what Tesla does next. 

BMW chimes in on a now-deleted post. The Internet is forever, BMW!

Not a Tesla App

It seems that FSD has caught their eyes after We, Robot - and that the demonstrations of FSD V13.2 online seem to be the pivot point. At the 2024 Shareholder Meeting earlier in the year, Elon shared the fact that several manufacturers had reached out, looking to understand what was required to license FSD from Tesla.

There is a good chance 2025 will be the year we’ll see announcements of the adoption of FSD by legacy manufacturers - similar to how we saw the surprise announcements of the adoption of the NACS charging standard.

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