Elon Musk is back in the news with his Tesla Robotaxi. This new cab service based on autonomous cars is accumulating delays and seeing its delivery date pushed back to next October. But where did this idea come from, to foreshadow the future of urban transport?
Never short of announcement effects, the boss of Tesla and SpaceX, among others, created a surprise with his announcement of the Robotaxi in 2019 at Tesla’s famous Autonomy Day. That year, Elon Musk presented the robotaxi as the Austin-based company’s first 100% autonomous car.
Initially scheduled for 2020, before being pushed back to 2024, the reveal date was set for August 8. A major event at a time when the company is experiencing increasing difficulties and its last automotive innovation dates back to November 2019 with the Cybertruck. However, Elon Musk finally postponed the presentation of the long-awaited model until Thursday October 10th.
A long-standing project
Although the project codenamed “Robotaxi” was first mentioned publicly by Elon Musk in 2019, its genesis dates back to 2016 and the Master Plan part. 2, which involved integrating fully autonomous driving (FSD ) into conventional Tesla models.
This plan already contained an “Autonomy” section, particularly concerning its proprietary “autopilot” feature– an advanced driver assistance system designed to make driving safer and less stressful – and began as follows: “As technology evolves, all Tesla vehicles will be equipped with the necessary hardware to be fully autonomous, with fail-safe capability, meaning that any system in the car can fail and the car will continue to drive safely.”
As for why Elon Musk is interested in autonomous driving, he cites “when used correctly, it is already much safer than a person driving alone and that it would therefore be morally reprehensible to delay its launch for fear of bad press or a mercenary calculation of legal liability.”
In 2019, the Robotaxi makes its presence felt with a sobering anticipation: the Canadian billionaire is counting on 1 million models on the road (then in the form of Tesla Model 3s) by the following year. The idea is to build a public transport service based on Tesla’s fleet and the cars of certain Tesla owners.
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