During the Cyber Rodeo at Giga Texas, Elon Musk revealed Tesla is developing a “dedicated robotaxi.”
Musk didn’t provide any teaser images of the new vehicle, except to say that will be “quite futuristic looking.”
The CEO also didn’t say when it will hit the streets, but it will be several years away at least.
The biggest hurdle to offering a dedicated robotaxi is of course the “robo” part of it.
Musk has been promising Full Self-Driving for several years, with his most recent comments on a timeline coming earlier this year when he said he would be “shocked” if it wasn’t “safer than a human this year.”
Even if Tesla is able to reach that level of safety this year, there is still the regulatory issues that go along with offering a dedicated robotaxi.
Then of course there is the production of the vehicle itself. Tesla is already cell constrained, having delayed production of the Cybertruck, Roadster, and Semi several times.
Adding another vehicle to the mix won’t help, but 4680 cell production from Giga Texas and their battery supply partners should help alleviate that bottleneck over the coming years.
