Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled on Thursday his vision of a “a fun, exciting future,” an “age of abundance” full of his company’s self-driving cars without steering wheels, parking lots turned into parks and robots that will walk among the population – that he once again promised would be available within a few years.
Whether he can live up to these promises remains to be seen.
Those plans, and the revelation of the designs for his robotaxis, came at a glitzy event in California, full of the kind of hype that has built Tesla a dedicated fan base for its electric vehicles. The event featured models of the robotaxi as well as a Robovan, a driverless vehicle designed to carry a larger group of people or items.
The designs were heavy on a metallic, shiny sci-fi aesthetic of the future. Musk himself even referenced the classic science fiction movie “Blade Runner,” although he said he wanted his version of the coming years to be cheerier than that dystopian noir film.
Musk is famous for promising near-term targets that take years or more to reach. He had predicted five years ago that his fleet of robotaxis were only a year away. During his presentation at the Warner Bros. studio lot late Thursday, even he admitted: “I tend to be a little optimistic with time frames.”
Investors appeared unimpressed, or at least doubtful, given the company’s track record of failing to hit earlier timelines for true self-driving. Shares of Tesla (TSLA) were down more than 8% in late afternoon trading Friday.
The event unveiling these products, which was livestreamed to millions of viewers on his social media platform X, began 53 minutes late.
But the delay seemed to matter little to the in-person crowd waiting for the chance to ride in the 50 self-driving vehicles that were cruising around the studio lot. They continued to cheer Musk throughout his relatively short 20-minute presentation.
Tesla has long offered what it calls Full Self-Driving or FSD, currently priced at $8,000, as an option on its cars. But despite its name, Tesla says drivers need to continue to sit in the driver’s seat, ready to take over control of the vehicle, even when in FSD mode.
Musk said Thursday that Teslas with FSD would be able to operate wherever state regulators would allow without human intervention, predicting that would occur in California and Texas by next year. And he also unveiled the Cybercab, a vehicle without steering wheel or accelerator or brake pedals which is specifically designed to carry passengers without a driver present, which he said should be in production by 2026.
