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Elon Musk has been promising that Tesla's robotaxis will soon arrive — for over a decade.
"I know I'm the boy who cried [Full Self Driving]," Musk said on Tesla's second-quarter 2023 earnings call in July 2023. "But man, I think we'll be better than human by the end of this year."
At the "We, Robot" event on Thursday at 7 p.m. PT, Musk is expected to showcase a Tesla robotaxi, or a car that can drive itself without human supervision, for the first time. There's a lot riding on the event — investors have high expectations and want to see the robotaxis in action.
Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives told CNN that "We, Robot" could be for Tesla what the iPhone was for Apple; it could be "one of the most important events" held by the company, Ives stated.
Related: Tesla Sales Show Demand Could Be Speeding Up For Electric Cars
Tesla will likely display a "Cybercab" robotaxi prototype designed especially for an autonomous EV fleet. In August 2022, Musk described a full self-driving system that combines Airbnb and Uber. Just like Airbnb hosts rent out their properties, Tesla owners could rent out their cars when they're not using them. The self-driving cars then operate on a ride-sharing platform like Uber for anyone to access.
Elon Musk in September 2024. Photo by Jean Catuffe/GC Images
With any self-driving announcement it makes on Thursday, Tesla will have to show that it can compete with existing robotaxi companies, like Alphabet-owned Waymo, which made 50,000 paid trips per week as of May with its driverless fleet.
The bar is also high for fully autonomous vehicles. Tesla states on its website that "full autonomy" requires "reliability far in excess of human drivers" through "billions of miles of experience" and "regulatory approval."
Tesla's most recent earnings report released earlier this month showed its best numbers all year with 462,890 deliveries, indicating that demand is up for its EVs. Musk stated in April that new, more affordable Tesla EVs were on the way by "early 2025 if not late this year."
Tesla has two driving features currently available with the purchase of a new car: Autopilot, which autosteers and matches traffic speed and comes with all new Teslas, and Full Self-Driving (Supervised), which helps the car change lanes, park, and stop at traffic lights for $99 per month or $8,000 for a one-time purchase.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) investigated Autopilot and found that it was involved in at least 13 crashes with at least one death. The Autopilot name may mislead drivers into believing that the system is more autonomous than it is, the agency stated.
Here's when the "We, Robot" event is happening and how to watch it.
When Is the Tesla Event
Tesla's "We, Robot" is scheduled for October 10 at 10 p.m. ET or 7 p.m. PT. The event was previously scheduled for August 8 but was subject to a two-month delay.
How to Watch the Tesla Event
Tesla is live-streaming the event from Burbank, California on X.
