On October 11th, Tesla held its "Robotaxi Day" event with the theme slogan "We, Robot".
The originally scheduled opening time was 10:00 Beijing time, but almost an hour later, Musk arrived late. According to a tweet posted on the X platform, there was an emergency medical situation among the crowd at the Robotaxi launch event, and they have been taken care of.
At the beginning of the event, Musk rode his self driving taxi Cybercab around the venue.
Subsequently, Musk officially took the stage to release Tesla's autonomous taxi Cybercab. It is reported that Cybercab does not have a steering wheel and pedals, and its cost will be less than $30000, with a transportation cost of about $0.2 per mile. It is expected to be put into production in 2026. In addition, induction charging will also be introduced in Cybercab.
According to Musk, the autonomous driving technology of Model 3 and Model Y will be significantly improved, achieving unsupervised FSD technology. Tesla is expected to launch fully autonomous driving (FSD) with unmanned supervision in Texas and California next year.
Next, Musk introduced the autonomous freight truck Robovan. It is reported that Robovan can accommodate 20 people or transport goods.
The Tesla humanoid robot Optimus also made its debut at this press conference. Musk revealed that significant progress has been made in the field of Optimus robots. The cost of Optimus robots produced on a scale will be between $20000 and $30000.
At the event, Optimus performed a hot dance to showcase flexibility, and interacted with the audience through activities such as "biye" and "gift giving" during the experiential segment.
After the press conference, multiple Cybercab and Robovan vehicles were driven onto the road at the event site for on-site viewing and experience.
Industry insiders: The turning point of commercialization of autonomous driving may take time
The launch of Robotaxi service by Tesla marks an important milestone in the development of the industry, "said Lv Bin, Vice President of MogujiaLian, in an interview with the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily
Tesla's release of Robotaxi will greatly promote the popularity and user acceptance of this emerging industry, "said Bu Rixin, founder of Chuangdao Hard Technology, to a reporter from the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily.
But at today's press conference, Tesla did not specify the specific road plan for Robotaxi, such as' how many vehicles will be on the road by the end of this year, '"said Zhang Xiang, Secretary General of the International Intelligent Transportation Technology Association, in an interview with the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily. In his opinion, the Tesla Robotaxi this time is only a sample car demonstration, and its practical significance may not be significant.
Bu Rixin, founder of Chuangdao Hard Technology, believes that Robotaxi is more of a business model innovation than a technological innovation. "Breakthroughs in some business models in China have always been conservative
It is reported that there are significant differences in the development process of Robotaxi between China and foreign countries.
In the United States, due to the high unit price of taxi services and expensive labor costs, Robotaxi has a higher economic value and feasibility, which makes it easier to recover investment costs. "Lv Bin, Vice President of MogujiaLian, added," In contrast, China's taxi industry is closer to public services, with lower overall passenger unit prices and lower labor costs compared to countries such as the United States and Japan, resulting in relatively smaller profit margins. Therefore, China may need longer time to achieve large-scale commercialization of Robotaxi
The battle for autonomous driving is essentially about data, and Tesla is the largest company in the world in terms of 'physical world data', "said Zhu Lei, founder and CEO of MogujiaLian, to a reporter from the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily
Zhang Xiang, Secretary General of the International Intelligent Transportation Technology Association, also told reporters from the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily, "Tesla's advantage is that it has accumulated rich experience and big data in autonomous driving. However, Tesla's latest autonomous driving software FSD V12 has not yet achieved fully autonomous driving at the L5 level. Currently, the autonomous driving technology of global car companies is still far from commercialization, and Tesla is no exception
The maturity of technology, the soundness of policies, conflicts of interest between artificial intelligence and humans, and the clarity of business models all need to be addressed one by one in order to usher in the true turning point of this industry, "said Bu Rixin, founder of Chuangdao Hard Technology.