For a decade, Elon Musk has been championing the idea that one day Tesla The car will drive itself as a robotaxi. Next week, the company will reveal the design of its self-driving cab.
Despite years of bold predictions and missed deadlines, fans of the company remain hopeful that Musk will finally deliver on his promise at the Oct. 10 event. Regardless of what the company shows off at RoboTaxi Day, experts are skeptical of the company's strategy, calling its Auotpilot and FSD technologies a barometer of Tesla's progress, or lack thereof.
In the decade since Musk promised self-driving cars, rivals have already built them.
letterWaymo, a subsidiary of Waymo, already operates commercial robotaxi services in many cities in the United States, with more than 100,000 paid rides per week as of August. AmazonIts subsidiary Zoox began testing ride-hailing services for employees in February 2023, with the goal of launching its own robotaxi service. In China, Pony.ai and Baidu also operate commercial robotaxi services.
The market can be very profitable. One optimistic estimate from Raymond James projects annual bookings for robo-taxi services to reach $50 billion by 2030.
and U.S. electric vehicle sales growth slowsThere's a lot of potential for Tesla to switch to autonomous driving.
Watch the video to see Tesla's path to realizing its robotaxi ambitions.