Tesla kicked off its much-hyped event late Thursday to unveil its long-promised robotaxi and update investors on artificial intelligence projects, efforts CEO Elon Musk has bet will drive the electric vehicle maker\u2019s long-term growth.
\nEnthusiasm around the event has been on display across social media, with screenshots of invites and speculation on what might be disclosed. But investors and analysts have flagged challenges with the technology and reined in expectations.
\nSocial media posts from attendees showed a festive vibe at the venue with crowds, lights and a huge stage. \u201cWe constructed a futuristic world,\u201d Musk said on social media platform X in response to an attendee\u2019s post with shots of a pamphlet with information on the event.
\nStellantis chairperson John Elkann was seen in the crowd along with Musk\u2019s younger brother, Kimbal, a social media post showed.
\nMusk\u2019s plan is to operate a fleet of self-driving Tesla taxis called Cybercabs that passengers can hail through an app. Individual Tesla owners will also be able to make money on the app by listing their vehicles as robotaxis.
\nThursday\u2019s event at the Warner Bros studio near Los Angeles, California, is titled \u201cWe, Robot\u201d \u2014 an apparent nod to the \u201cI, Robot\u201d science-fiction short stories by American writer Isaac Asimov, but also echoes Musk\u2019s insistence that Tesla \u201cshould be thought of as an AI robotics company\u201d rather than an automaker.
\nThose attending will include investors, stock analysts and Tesla fans. Topping their list of questions will be how quickly can Tesla ramp up robotaxi production, at what cost, and, crucially, how much money it can make from the taxi business.
\nEyes will also be on progress the company has made with the partial automation software it markets as Full Self-Driving that company watchers expect to underpin its robotaxis.
\nMusk could also give details on cheaper versions of Tesla\u2019s current EVs as well as updates on its humanoid robot Optimus.<\/p>\n
Missed promises<\/strong> Tesla kicked off its much-hyped event late Thursday to unveil its long-promised robotaxi and update investors on artificial intelligence projects, efforts CEO Elon Musk has bet will drive the electric vehicle maker\u2019s long-term growth. Enthusiasm around the event has been on display across social media, with screenshots of invites and speculation on what might be …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":71476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71442"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71478,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71442\/revisions\/71478"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMusk said in 2019 he was \u201cvery confident\u201d the company would have operational robotaxis by the next year. After missed promises, Musk this year diverted his focus to developing the vehicles after scrapping plans to build a smaller, cheaper car widely seen as essential to countering slowing EV demand.
\nTesla is at risk of posting its first-ever decline in deliveries this year as buying incentives have failed to attract enough customers to its aging EV lineup. Steep price cuts meant to offset high interest rates have also squeezed profit margins.
\nTo convince investors that Tesla can keep up the blistering pace of growth it reported several quarters back, analysts said Musk needs to show a prototype and provide detailed plans on how Tesla can overtake rivals such as Alphabet\u2019s Waymo, which operates uncrewed robotaxis ferrying paying passengers in a few US cities.
\nComplicated technology and tight regulation have led to billion of dollars in loss for other companies attempting to crack the robotaxi market, forcing some to shut shop.
\nSome are still pushing, including General Motors\u2019 Cruise, Amazon\u2019s Zoox and Chinese firms such as WeRide.
\nUnlike expensive hardware such as lidar that others use, Musk is relying only on cameras and AI to run FSD to keep costs down. But FSD, which requires constant driver attention, has faced regulatory and legal scrutiny with at least two fatal accidents involving the technology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"