Tesla’s Robovan and Robotaxi Reveal Fails to Impress Investors
The much-awaited Tesla Robovan and Robotaxi reveal happened at the We, Robot Event. However, the event failed to impress investors. Tesla’s share price dipped by 5.9% on October 11, 2024 morning as per CNBC.
The Thursday, October 10, 2024 event saw Tesla CEO, Elon Musk unveil the long-waited Robotaxi, Cybercab, and Cybertruck, a Robovan prototype.
The CyberCab features two gull-wing doors and does not have pedals or steering wheel. The Robovan is a driverless vehicle designed to move people around high density areas. The van can carry a maximum of 20 people at a time as well as goods.
Vision for A Glorious Future
On Thursday night, Elon Musk termed the future as glorious as the company unveiled Tesla’s first CyberCab. The Robotaxi rolled up the stage for close to an hour during the Tesla We Robot Event. Musk mentioned that Tesla had already developed 21 CyberCabs and a total of 50 driverless vehicles on-location.
Musk said Cybercab production will commence in 2026. He said that Tesla Cybercab will be priced at below $30,000 and will cost about 20 cents per mile to operate. Tesla plans to have the robotaxis in the market before 2027.
The autonomous vehicle maker plans to run a fleet of Tesla Robotaxi self-driving cars that users can hail via an app. People who own Tesla electric vehicles will also be able to earn money by listing their cars as robotaxis on the app.
“The vast majority of the time, cars are just doing nothing. But if they’re autonomous, they could be used five times more, maybe 10 times more,” Musk said.
Tesla expects to have its unsupervised full self-driving (FSD) software up and running in California and Texas in 2025. A supervised version of the premium driver assistance software is currently available on Tesla electric vehicles. The company says FSD will be running its Model 3 and Model Y electric cars.
Tesla’s Futuristic Robovan
TechCrunch reported Tesla’s futuristic vehicle, the Robovan, as We Remote’s biggest surprise.
“We’re going to make this, and it’s going to look like that,” Musk said as the Cybertruck rolled to the center stage.
Tesla’s Robovan features a retro-futuristic look and comes with doors that slide out from the center, tinted windows, and silver metallic sides with stripes and black details. The van is autonomous and does not have a steering wheel.
“One of the things we want to do, and we’ve done this with the Cybertruck – is we want to change the look of the roads. The future should look like the future,” Musk said.
The Cybertruck’s look is very similar to that of autonomous taxis designed by Cruise and Zoox only than its much bigger in size. But Tesla’s Robovan unveiling 2024 came with little commitment on when the Cybertruck will be ready. Musk did not reveal how Tesla will produce the Robovan, how much it will cost, or when it will hit the market.
Missed Opportunity
Even with the reveal of Tesla’s Robotaxi and Robovan, analysts say the We Remote event failed to showcase near-term opportunities for the EV manufacturer. Instead, the reveal prioritized Musk’s vision for future self-driving cars.
“As expected, like prior Tesla product unveils, the event was light on the details and instead emphasized the vision underpinning Tesla’s growth endeavors in AI autonomous vehicles. Yet there were no updates indicating near-term opportunities. Tesla didn’t show its low-cost model planned for 1H′25 production. We also didn’t get any near-term updates on FSD progress, or data reflecting improvement in the system,” Barclays’ U.S. Autos and Mobility said.
Morgan Stanley felt Musk failed to position Tesla as an AI company during the event. Analysts from the bank said he did not provide information on Tesla’s FSD system improvements nor did he discuss the rumors about Tesla-xAI partnership.
The We Robot event “overall disappointed expectations in a number of areas – a lack of data regarding rate-of-change on FSD/tech, ride-share economics, and go-to-market strategy. We were overall disappointed with the substance and detail of the presentation. As such, we anticipate TSLA to be under pressure following the event” Morgan Stanley Analysts wrote.
Companies like Waymo have already launched robotaxis. But with regulators raising safety concerns, it will take several years before Robotaxis becomes a reality on public roads.
