Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday said the electric vehicle maker will roll out driverless ride-hailing services to the public in California and Texas next year, a claim likely to face significant regulatory and technical challenges.

“We think that we’ll be able to have driverless Teslas doing paid rides next year,” Musk said on Tesla’s quarterly earnings call. He said Tesla currently offers an app-based ride-hailing service to employees in the San Francisco Bay Area.

His statement doubled down and expanded on a pledge he made at Tesla’s robotaxi unveiling two weeks ago, where he said he expected to roll out “unsupervised” self-driving in certain Tesla vehicles in 2025. The lack of a business plan around the robotaxi at that event sent its stock plunging.

On Wednesday, however, Tesla won back some investor confidence by forecasting a jump in vehicle sales next year.

In California, in particular, the company will face an uphill climb in securing the needed permits to offer fully autonomous rides to paying customers.

Alphabet’s Waymo, which offers paid rides in autonomous vehicles in the Bay Area and Los Angeles, as well as in Phoenix, Arizona, spent years logging millions of miles of testing before it received its first permit from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which regulates ride-hailing services.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles, which regulates testing and deployment of autonomous vehicles in the state, told Reuters that Tesla last reported using its autonomous vehicle testing permit in 2019. That permit requires a safety driver.

The company does not have, and has not applied for, a testing permit without a driver, the agency said.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

As for the ride-hailing service in the Bay Area for employees, CPUC said Tesla does not need a permit, because employees are not considered passengers.

At Tesla’s robotaxi event on Oct 10, Musk unveiled a two-seater, two-door “Cybercab” without a steering wheel and pedals that would use cameras and artificial intelligence to navigate roads.

On Wednesday, he acknowledged the potential difficulties in California, saying “it’s not something we totally control,” but adding “I would be shocked if we don’t get approval next year.”

Ross Gerber, a Tesla shareholder and CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management, said “dealing with regulators is a very difficult process” and that no one should consider it “a walk in the park.”

Texas has far fewer regulatory requirements for autonomous vehicles than California, but companies often test for months or years before deploying paid services.

Rules around deployment of autonomous vehicles are largely left to individual states. Musk on the call said there should be a “national approval process for autonomy.”

Tesla’s advanced driver assistance system, called Full Self-Driving (FSD), which is the bedrock for Tesla’s robotaxi ambitions, has faced questions from regulators.

Last week, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened an investigation into 2.4 million Tesla vehicles equipped with FSD after four reported collisions, including a 2023 fatal crash.

Still, the idea of Tesla rolling out a robotaxi fleet sent shares of ride-hailing apps Uber and Lyft down 2.3% in post-market trading.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Los Angeles, United States:

Elon Musk on Thursday unveiled what he said was a robotaxi capable of self-driving, predicting it would be available by 2027 — about a decade after he first promised an autonomous vehicle.

The Tesla CEO said the fully electric car — which has no steering wheel or pedals — would be priced under $30,000, would be charged wirelessly with inductive technology and would be “10 to 20 times safer” than human-driven cars.

“You can think of the car in an autonomous world as being like just a little lounge,” he told a crowd at the Warner Brothers Studio lot near Los Angeles.

“You’re just sitting in a comfortable little lounge, and you can do whatever you want while you’re in this comfortable little lounge, and when you get out, you will be at your destination.”

Few details were given about the vehicle, whose gullwing doors are reminiscent of the Delorean made famous by the “Back to the Future” films, but Musk said Tesla already had 50 of them.

He said the company was expecting to begin “fully autonomous, unsupervised” driving in Texas and California next year with existing models, and then move on to production of what he called the “cybercab”.

“I tend to be a little optimistic with time frames, but in 2026, so yeah, before 2027. Let me put it that way.”

Robovan and Optimus robot

The evening, which started almost an hour late, was heavy on sunny visions of the future, but light on specifics.

But it also showcased a mass passenger vehicle that Musk called “The Robovan.”

The vehicle, which looks like an enormous moving toaster, has no steering wheel, pedals or driver.

It can seat up to 20 people or could be converted to carry goods, Musk said.

He gave no details about production or any timeline.

Musk also brought out dancing humanoid robots called Optimus that he said would one day be able to do menial tasks, as well as offer friendship.

“I think this will be the biggest product ever of any kind,” he said, adding that he expected the robot to retail for $20,000 to $30,000.

He gave no timeline on this, either, and it was not clear from the livestream what the robot’s capabilities were, although it was shown walking amongst audience members, handing out plaques and serving drinks.

Trump

Musk’s bullish pronouncements and dedicated fanbase have helped build Tesla into one of the world’s most valuable companies.

While he was once the darling of the political left for his environmentalist moves towards electrifying transport, he has become increasingly controversial.

Since buying Twitter — which he renamed X — the free speech absolutist cut staffing on the platform, leading many long-time users and advertisers to abandon the forum.

And he’s currently spending time and money promoting Republican Donald Trump, echoing the billionaire presidential candidate’s dire warnings about migrants and a crumbling America, including during an exuberant appearance at a weekend Trump rally that was widely mocked.

Thursday night’s robotaxi reveal was a long time coming.

Musk first said in 2016 a fully automated car was two years away; a year later he was touting a vehicle by 2019 so clever that customers would be able to sleep while it drove them around.

But as many automakers have found, self-driving is tricky.

While lots of cars nowadays have limited automation, theoretically allowing the driver to cede some of the boring bits of driving to an onboard computer, the person behind the wheel still has to pay attention and jump in if the car does something unpredictable.

That’s because computers, unlike people, are not very good at reacting to unexpected events or situations they have never seen before.

Other companies, such as Google’s Waymo and General Motors’ Cruise, have operated heavily regulated and limited pilot robotaxi programs for a few years already.

Anything Tesla tries to put on the road will face the same kind of regulatory hurdles, as well as skepticism from the general public, many of whom have never seen a car without a driver.

Immediate reaction to the reveals was mixed.

“Delusional nonsense from a liar who has been promising a robotaxi every year for a decade,” wrote user @goodandnormal on X.

Others on the platform were more enthusiastic, with some predicting that Tesla’s share price will soar when US markets open.

“Tesla self-driving ‘Robovan.’ The future looks promising,” wrote @CollinsEbot1.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced the release date of his Tesla robotaxi. In a post shared on his platform X, formerly Twitter on Saturday, the tech billionaire wrote, “Tesla Robotaxi unveil on 8/8.”

Tesla Robotaxi unveil on 8/8

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2024

This sparked a nearly 4% surge in Tesla’s stock to $171.19 during extended trading on Friday, as per Market Watch. 

This revelation came shortly after Mr Musk denied reports of canceling plans for a lower-priced car, reaffirming Tesla’s focus on an autonomous vehicle that could disrupt the automotive industry.

What is a Robotaxi?

Tesla’s robotaxi, described by Elon Musk during a 2019 investor event, is a futuristic self-driving vehicle. Mr Musk envisioned a future where owners could earn by renting out their autonomous vehicles for use in a taxi service, with Tesla taking a commission.

Elon Musk’s vision for a robotaxi has faced several setbacks, with initial projections in 2019 suggesting that these vehicles would be operational by 2020. Admitting to delays, Mr Musk acknowledged, “The only criticism, and it’s a fair one, sometimes I’m not on time.” 

One major roadblock to releasing the robotaxi is getting regulatory approval for Tesla’s self-driving technology. Last year, Tesla had to recall many vehicles because the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) found issues with Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta software. The NHTSA warned that this software could cause Tesla cars to break speed limits or drive unpredictably and unsafely.

At present, buyers have the option to get Tesla’s full self-driving capability when buying a new Tesla Model 3, with an extra cost of $12,000 on top of the car’s $40,000 base price. Or you can subscribe for up to $199 a month, depending on the car’s setup.