Local time on Monday, Musk finally responded to the delay of the unmanned taxi Robotaxi, saying Tesla needs more time for design changes. However, Musk did not give a specific release date. When asked repeatedly by netizens, Musk responded on social media platform that he requested important design changes to the front of Robotaxi, and the extra time from the delayed release date will give the company a chance to showcase other content.
This also confirms previous reports that Tesla has postponed the release of Robotaxi from August to October, the design team was told to redesign certain elements of this rental car. So far, Musk has revealed few details about his self-driving taxi. He only said that some vehicles will be owned and operated by Tesla, while others will be owned by individuals but rented out on Tesla’s network, bringing lucrative returns to owners. In addition, facing engineering and regulatory obstacles in the development of Robotaxi and autonomous driving systems, Wall Street analysts and Tesla investors point out that the delay in launching Robotaxi is not surprising. Meanwhile, Baidu’s self-driving taxi project “Apollo Go”, Alphabet’s self-driving taxi project Waymo, and General Motors’ Cruise are ahead of Tesla. In April of this year, Musk announced a “big news” that Robotaxi, a self-driving taxi, would be launched on August 8th, on the same day, there were reports that Tesla had abandoned its low-cost car plan. During Monday’s trading session, Tesla’s stock price surged nearly 7% in early trading, not because of the latest news on Robotaxi, but due to the “Trump trade”, as people hope the Trump administration may make it easier for Tesla to obtain regulatory approval for Robotaxi and autonomous driving systems.
Musk fully supports Trump and hopes for his quick recovery. He claims the last president as tough as Trump was Theodore Roosevelt a century ago.