Tesla to mass-produce driver-less ‘robotaxi’ by 2024

Global electric vehicle giant Tesla plans to put its self-driving ‘robotaxi’ in mass production by 2024, according to founder and CEO Elon Musk. The announcement was made during the company’s first-quarter earnings call held Wednesday. 

Germany has been experimenting with self-driving shuttles

In a report by Automotive News Europe, the upcoming model is said to have no means of driver input such as pedals and a steering wheel. Instead, it will be a completely autonomous model utilizing Tesla’s as-yet incomplete “full self-driving” software currently undergoing beta testing with 100,000 owners taking part. 

Musk initially mentioned plans for the robotaxi at the opening of his company’s Texas factory earlier this month, hinting that it will “look quite futuristic” in a sign that the vehicle will not resemble any of the models in Tesla’s lineup. He cited Tesla’s projections showing that a future robotaxi ride will potentially cost less than the fare on a subsidized public bus or subway, with the aim being to achieve the lowest cost per mile for a taxi-like vehicle.

The current Autopilot system used on Tesla's production models is only at Level 2 autonomous driving

Asked if there were plans to sell the vehicle to the general public or for fleet-based transportation businesses, Musk declined to elaborate. “We don’t want to jump the gun on an exciting product announcement yet,” he said.  

In 2019, the Tesla boss predicted that a fleet of robotaxis would be a reality in 2020. A tweet by Musk in April 2020 acknowledged that regulatory approval would be a major factor in deploying robotaxis even if they were to be completely functional. 

The robotaxi will be considered a Level 5 autonomous vehicle, a huge leap for Tesla as the current Autopilot system on its consumer models is only at Level 2. But Musk will likely have the resources at his disposal to make it happen, as Tesla closed the first quarter of 2022 with a net income of $3.32 billion (Php 173.6 billion), dwarfing its $438 million (Php 23 billion) profit in the same period last year. 

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