Tesla Robotaxi event reportedly delayed but why?

Tesla has reportedly delayed the upcoming Robotaxi unveiling, which was officially announced to be released on the 8th of August.

Bloomberg reports that the company is postponing this Robotaxi unveiling due to some additional work and refinements to the prototype and developing new ones. It is also mentioned that the delay is in place to rework some elements in the car for the event.

The news brought a negative impact as the company’s shares slid 8 percent on Thursday. Specifically, the company may push the event for up to 2 months and the new date might be October. Meanwhile, Tesla has not published an official statement on this matter.

Robotaxi is picking up pace in the industry due to broad future growth opportunities. Automaker Cruise and Alphabet’s Waymo already entered in this segment with their newest driver systems.

However, controversies also surround this technology due to on-road safety risks. Last year, a Cruise robotaxi involved in an accident and injured a pedestrian. Such incidents have led to higher scrutiny from regulators.

At the core of these robotaxis is self-driving technology to operate the car through traffic and drop the customer to the destination.

Tesla has been developing its Full Self Driving (FSD) for five years. Compared to GM’s Cruise and Alphabet’s Waymo, Tesla has recorded more data for on-road driving and has been using that to train the latest FSD model.

Its new FSD version 12 has been the most advanced compared to previous releases. The EV company is likely to use FSD for Robotaxi as well. However, a complete synchronization between the hardware and the software will be required to provide a safe and accurate autonomous driving experience.

Adding new elements and changing the design would enable the company to bring a better Robotaxi but nothing can be said until the company brings this product on-stage.