Elon Musk stated that Tesla will unveil its long-awaited robotaxi in August.
On Friday afternoon, he announced the Tesla Robotaxi on X, formerly known as Twitter.
An autonomous ride-hailing vehicle has been a linchpin of Tesla’s valuation in recent years. Musk chases self-driving features to boost the value of the company’s vehicles via software.
Tesla shares soared more than 3% in after-hours trade following Musk’s tweet.
Musk has previously stated in interviews and analyst conference calls that Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software can potentially increase the value of its vehicles.
However, FSD was still in beta testing until early this year, when Tesla started referring to it as FSD “supervised.”
The program is now classified as “level two” on an industry-standard scale of one to six. FSD still requires constant human supervision and is not autonomous.
Other businesses, including Alphabet’s Waymo division and General Motors-backed Cruise, have successfully deployed more advanced versions of self-driving cars.
Earlier on Friday, Reuters claimed that Tesla had shelved plans for a related project, a cheaper electric vehicle, to focus more resources on the robotaxi. “Reuters is lying (again),” Musk posted on X following the article.
What pricing may look like for a future robotaxi or whether it will be sold to individuals or corporations is unknown. FSD now costs $200 monthly for automobile owners with the necessary gear to enable it.
