Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, announced plans to unveil self-driving robot taxis in August. This move is seen as a strategy to stimulate new growth amid disappointing first-quarter sales, which fell short of market expectations.
On May 5 (local time), Musk posted on his X (formerly Twitter) account, “The Tesla robot taxi will be unveiled on August 8.” This is interpreted as the first step in a new business venture, operating unmanned taxis using Tesla’s autonomous driving technology (FSD) and charging fares. Musk did not disclose any other specific schedules related to the commercialization of the robot taxis.
The announcement has created a divide in the market, with some eagerly anticipating the potential opportunities while others remain skeptical. If commercialization is achieved, a vast market will open up. However, Elon Musk has been known to change his stance on this issue several times. At the Tesla Autonomous Investor Day event in April 2019, he had already declared that robot taxis would be operational by 2020 and car operators would earn $30,000 annually.
On the 4th, Tesla Korea officially started selling the new Model 3 rear-wheel drive (RWD) and long-range versions in Korea. The starting price of the new Model 3 has dropped by more than $7,000 compared to the previous model. Courtesy of Tesla KoreaThe robot taxi market faces headwinds due to technical limitations, fueling pessimism. For instance, Cruise, a subsidiary of General Motors, had to suspend its robot taxi operations after a female pedestrian was hit in San Francisco last October, just over two months after it started 24-hour commercial operations in the city in August. Similarly, Apple, which invested $10 billion in developing autonomous electric cars since 2014, abandoned the project (Apple Car) in February.
Some interpret this as a dual strategy of presenting a future vision of robot taxis to overcome the chasm while promoting low-cost models. Tesla has been focusing on expanding low-cost models equipped with Chinese lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries to respond to the decline in electric vehicle demand since last year.
Tesla launched the Model Y rear-wheel drive (RWD) model in Korea last year and officially started selling the Model 3 RWD on the 4th of this month. The Model Y, including the RWD, has been very popular, selling the most among imported cars on a cumulative basis from January to March this year, with a total of 6,012 units. The newly launched Model 3 RWD has also dropped in price by more than $7,000 compared to the previous US model, and it is expected to record sales not inferior to the Model Y.
According to Professor Kim Pil Soo from the Future Automobile Department at Daelim University, Tesla has publicly announced that it will use only a camera to process the visual information required for autonomous driving without needing other equipment like lidar. However, with the current Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology, implementing uncrewed robot taxis doesn’t seem easy. Musk’s statement appears to be aimed at compensating for the decline in sales by expanding low-cost electric cars and, at the same time, meeting market expectations for the company’s growth potential, which cannot be achieved by this alone.
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