Elon Musk's Prediction About Tesla Robotaxis Is Causing Buzz
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is making waves after revealing his ambitious Robotaxi vision, which could likely lead to both beneficial and detrimental outcomes. The Tesla head has been raving about Robotaxis for years now. In 2019, Musk made bold predictions on Tesla's Robotaxi plans, even claiming such a service could come as early as the following year. While that didn't exactly come to fruition, Musk did give a sneak peek at what Tesla has in store. This includes driver-less taxis that can be hailed at the press of a button, as well as ones that could eventually come without any steering wheel or human-controlled instrumentation whatsoever.
Tesla's CEO believed its Robotaxis will be high in demand, even stating they could become more profitable and less costly compared to competing services like Uber and Lyft. Of course, Musk himself also highlighted challenges that Tesla will be facing, such as regulation hurdles and vehicle accident liabilities, to name a couple. However, that certainly didn't stop him from delivering yet another ambitious statement on what's to come in Tesla's Robotaxi future.
Tesla's Robotaxis could be taking over industries
During Tesla's annual shareholder's meeting, Musk predicted that its Robotaxis will not only be something like Uber but lodging service Airbnb as well (via New York Post). Musk revealed Tesla owners will soon have the choice of adding their personal EVs to the company's Robotaxi fleet. Doing so lets them earn extra income whenever they're not driving their EVs, as Musk pointed out these vehicles remain dormant in parking lots most of the time "doing nothing." To make that happen, Tesla's Full Self-Driving system should work flawlessly by then, and Musk is still feeling pretty confident about its chances of success.
The Tesla CEO claims that a self-driving "general solution" is currently in development, one that would still work even if it's used in a "randomly generated alternate Earth." The thing is, autonomous tech is already threatening various jobs at an alarming pace, and Tesla is one of its major catalysts (via Insider). Investors might soon find autonomous EVs more enticing than leasing real estate given Musk's past estimations of Robotaxis being capable of generating a $30,000 annual yield per unit. Although it's unclear when exactly Tesla can pull this off, it might not come any time soon. Lucid CEO and ex-Tesla engineer Peter Rawlinson said last year that Robotaxis are still a decade away from happening, as he expressed that coming up with autonomous driving software is like a "mountain to climb."