Hyperdrive
Tesla Robotaxis Touted Years Ago Are Nowhere to Be Found
A dedicated model and more iterations of hardware are clear signs Elon Musk isn't close to making customers' cars fully autonomous.
Elon Musk introducing Tesla Autopilot in 2015.
Photographer: David Paul MorrisThis article is for subscribers only.
If teasing plans for a standalone robotaxi wasn’t a clear enough sign that Tesla won’t be beaming fully self-driving software to its cars anytime soon, Elon Musk just made this disillusionment all the more obvious.
To recap, Musk claimed in April 2019 that Teslas were one year away from no longer needing human supervision and earning their owners $30,000 annually by autonomously driving other people around. Having failed to deliver this 43 months later, the chief executive officer shared a teaser image of a dedicated robotaxi in December.