Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, introduced the Robotaxi, a new self-driving vehicle, at an event in California, claiming that “it’s going to be a glorious future.”
The billionaire described his vision of a “fun, exciting future,” an “age of abundance” that would include robots that will stroll among people, parking spaces transformed into parks, and his company’s self-driving vehicles without steering wheels—all of which he once again predicted will be accessible within a few years.
With its two wing-like doors and lack of a steering wheel or pedals, the futuristic-looking car dropped Mr Musk in front of an audience that was excited to learn more about a project he believed would be crucial to Tesla’s next phase.
During the event named “We, Robot,” the multibillionaire maintained his belief that autonomous cars will be safer than cars driven by people and that their owners may even profit from renting out their vehicles for journeys.
“As you can see, I just arrived in Robotaxi, the Cybercab,” Musk told an audience after getting out of one of the vehicles at Warner Bros. Studios outside Los Angeles.
“You see a lot of sci-fi movies where the future is dark and dismal, where it’s not a future you want to be in… We want to have a fun, exciting future that if you could look in a crystal ball and see the future, you’d be like, ‘yes, I wish I could be there now.’ That’s what we want,” Musk said.
Newsng understands that investors don’t seem to be as excited as he is; following Friday morning’s US market opening, Tesla’s share price dropped.
The stock’s value had decreased by about eight per cent as of 11:45 Eastern Time (16:45 BST), selling at about $219.
He said that the price of the Cybercab, which would go up against rivals like Waymo, owned by Alphabet, would be less than $30,000 (£23,000.
Analysts, however, question the viability of that proposal.
We earlier reported that Waymo will send robotaxis to new places this winter as it continues to expand.
