Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, said on Monday that the company was postponing the robotaxi unveiling and that this was due to his request for a “significant design modification to the front.”
The Tesla CEO claimed in April that the Robotaxi would be unveiled in October, but Bloomberg reported last week that the announcement was scheduled for October, citing anonymous insiders.
A request for comment from the corporation was not immediately answered.
Newsng gathered that the news caused Tesla shares to drop more than 6% at first, but they have subsequently rebounded.
On Friday, an individual with knowledge of the situation stated that the robotaxi event had been postponed, but they did not also provide any details.
According to Wall Street analysts and Tesla investors, a delay in the robotaxi launch would not be surprising given the numerous technical and regulatory challenges that the development of autonomous driving systems and robotaxis must overcome.
Musk addressed the delay for the first time in a social media statement on Monday.
“Requested what I think is an important design change to the front, and extra time allows us to show off a few other things,” Musk said on his X social media platform in a reply to a user post discussing the event.
Musk has stated that Tesla’s driverless taxi service, which would eventually allow Tesla drivers to opt into adding their vehicles to the fleet while not in use, is intended to function like “a combination of Airbnb and Uber.”
The potential reveal event delay isn’t entirely unexpected; Musk frequently underestimates how long it will take to bring his ideas to market, claiming that he is bullish about product deadlines.
The same thing happened with the Cybertruck, Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software, and Starlink’s high-speed internet connectivity in rural places.
We earlier reported that shortly after lowering pricing in the US, Tesla announced steep price reductions in China and Germany as it deals with diminishing sales and escalating competition in key countries.
