Tesla CEO Elon Musk has hinted that his latest company project, ‘robotaxi’ will be like Uber and Airbnb combined.
Musk confirmed this at the annual shareholder meeting. Musk stated that the system was not designed with launch cities in mind, the way competitors approach the concept, Fox Business reports.
Elon Musk also alluded to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) when it was fully operational.
“Look at how many cars are parked. There are parking lots full of cars everywhere. Because cars need a driver, so most of the time they’re doing nothing.” said Elon Musk
Elon Musk said Tesla owners could add their vehicles to the robotaxi fleet, which would help customers earn secondary income.
When Tesla Full Self-Driving (FSD) is fully operational, Musk said Tesla owners have the option of using them alone or adding cars to their robotaxi fleet for secondary income when the vehicles are not in use.
Tesla’s competitors in the robotaxi segment, Cruise and Waymo have focused their efforts on a single city with highly accurate environmental mapping as key to the functionality of their autonomous mobility systems.
Meanwhile Tesla is collecting data from owners of cars running beta versions of FSD. More than 40 million miles have already been traversed and Elon Musk hopes to reach 100 million miles soon. Data collected from Tesla cars using FSD Beta will be used in the development of robotaxi.
Tesla plans to bring a dedicated robotaxi with no steering wheel or pedals to market by 2024
