Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced the unveiling date of the Robotaxi a few months ago. The automaker originally planned to reveal the next-gen smaller vehicle Robotaxi prototype on 8th August.
Last week, Bloomberg cited its unidentified inside sources at Tesla (TSLA) that the company has delayed the Robotaxi unveiling. According to the Bloomberg report, the automaker delayed the Robotaxi reveal event from August to October.
At the time this information leaked out, there was no official confirmation from Tesla on the matter. Later on, Tesla’s Elon Musk confirmed the news of the delay and also provided the reasoning behind it.
However, Musk or any other Tesla official channel has given the next tentative timeline for the Robotaxi reveal. It should be expected in 2024 and if Bloomberg is correct, it might be October after all.
The delay of the much anticipated Robotaxi reveal event is not without a reason of course. Elon Musk took to his social media platform X to explain why this coveted event was postponed.
Musk responded to a video on X that claimed that the Bloomberg/Dana Hull story about the 2-month delay was a bit misleading. Warren Redlich claimed that according to his sources, the delay was because of an engineering change that Elon Musk asked for during a big meeting at Tesla.
In his response to Warren’s video, Elon Musk confirmed that he asked for a design change to the front of the vehicle. This perhaps happened because Musk had a eureka moment during or before the big meeting. Otherwise, Tesla designers and engineers were ready to showcase the Robotaxi (Cybercab) prototype to the world.
“Requested what I think is an important design change to the front, and extra time allows us to show off a few other things,” Elon Musk stated.
Of course, a change to the design of a high-tech next-gen vehicle isn’t just a simple design change to a clay model. This will also require changes to the engineering aspects of the vehicle as well.
According to Warren’s sources at Tesla, one of the lead engineers said that this change to the Robotaxi design will take around 2 months. To which Musk replied, “Just do it as fast as you can”.
Interestingly, Tesla already leaked a few glimpses of the interior of the Robotaxi aka Cybercab in an official video in May. However, the change Musk has asked for most probably won’t affect the interior of the Tesla Robotaxi.
Until the design change is finished, Tesla will also have the new Full Self-Driving (FSD) software version 12.5 launched and tested as well. So, this will also allow the automaker to better demonstrate the Robotaxi features.
According to rumors and various reports, Tesla is going to build multiple prototypes of the Robotaxi, hence another possible reason for the delay.
ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood reacted positively to the news of the delay of the Robotaxi unveiling. She thinks that this delay will result in a more impactful event in October (possibly before or after).
That just tells me, that, we’re probably getting closer to this Robotaxi opportunity — not further away. He wants to show us something more — I think awe-inspiring then we might have seen on August 8th and he believes this is possible by October.
Cathie Wood on Bloomberg TV
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