Tesla’s communication, especially when it goes through Elon Musk, is sometimes quite chaotic. So, after Reuters announced that Tesla’s $25,000 project was abandoned, Elon Musk, who dissolved the company’s press relations department, rushed to deny the information. However, the damage was done and Tesla shares experienced a slight decline after these announcements, the degree of veracity of which we still do not know.
One thing is certain: if the arrival of a $25,000 Tesla is uncertain, the autonomous version that was to result from it is definitely in the pipeline. Elon Musk even announced on X that it would be revealed on August 8, 2024.
It is called a Robotaxi, which could be its name, and implies that it would be 100% autonomous and therefore without a steering wheel. At least this is a desire shown by Elon Musk for many years now, even if advances in autonomous driving systems do not yet make it possible to imagine such use on a large scale. And if there are already autonomous taxi services, they operate within the framework of well-defined experiments.
A risky bet for Tesla
Tesla’s announcement appears to have been precipitated by recent events. If the general public electric car project has indeed been abandoned, Tesla is therefore playing big by only keeping a version dedicated to autonomous driving.
In the biography of Elon Musk by Walter Issacson, we learn that Elon Musk initially wanted to exclusively develop a purely autonomous version and that he had been convinced by his engineers to also offer a more classic model. “Let’s be clear. This vehicle has to be designed as a pure robotaxi. We’re going to take that risk. It’s my fault if it screws up. But we’re not going to design some sort of amphibious frog that’s half a car. We’re betting all about autonomy”he declared in 2022. It is therefore possible that Elon Musk has returned to his initial idea of only offering a version without a steering wheel or pedals.
Furthermore, the design of the model should be “futuristic like the Tesla Cybertruck”explains the biography. “When one of these vehicles comes around a street corner, people will think they are seeing something of the future”said Elon Musk.
It remains to be seen whether the announced deadline will be respected this time. Evil tongues will say that Elon Musk announced a presentation date, but without specifying the year. However, it is likely that the car that Tesla promises to reveal to us on August 8 will not be a final version. The Cybertruck was, for example, shown for the first time in November 2019, but the final examples were not delivered until the end of 2023. To be continued, therefore.