On September 26th, Tesla's official Weibo account announced the release of Robotaxi: October 11th Beijing time, stay tuned.
On September 26th, Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted a blog post on Weibo, stating, "This will be one for the history books.
Meng Pengfei, chief analyst of open-source securities machinery industry, pointed out that the full auto drive system FSD is the software technology foundation of Tesla Robotaxiand Tesla humanoid robot, and it relies on the end-to-end large model supported by the camera's pure visual route and algorithm computing power. The debut of Tesla Robotaxi marks a further breakthrough in the FSD system, which is expected to drive further progress in the intelligence of Tesla's humanoid robots.
Previously announced an extension
According to 21st Century Business Herald, some media reported in July that the Tesla Robotaxi, originally scheduled to be released on August 8th, will be postponed to October.
At Tesla's Q2 earnings conference call, Tesla management admitted to postponing the release date of Tesla Robotaxi to October 10th - but at the same time, Tesla executives, including Elon Musk, remained secretive about the reasons for the delay and questions about the delayed release of Robotaxi.
According to the Daily Economic News, Musk has been brewing for at least 8 years about creating the Robotaxi service. The Robotaxi project was put on the agenda by Musk in 2016. The biography of Musk also mentions that Musk's grand vision is for Tesla to create a vehicle that can drive completely autonomously without any human intervention.
The most important driving factor for such a strong interest in Robotaxi is the expectation to seize the travel market with a lower cost advantage. Moreover, due to the fierce competition in the electric vehicle market, Tesla's competitiveness is also weakening, and betting on Robotaxi has become Musk's top choice. According to a research report by Huafu Securities, after calculation and comparison, Robotaxi's operating cost advantage is prominent, with an operating cost of only 0.81 yuan per kilometer, saving 58% compared to traditional gasoline vehicles and 43% compared to traditional electric vehicles.
In fact, apart from a release date, there are not many details about the Robotaxi project from the outside world. Earlier this year, Tesla management revealed that the company's Robotaxi is called "Cyber cab" and its operating model is not only self operated, but also allows Tesla owners to send their cars out to make money, similar to the combination of Airbnb and Uber.
Open Source Securities expects Cybercab to be a smaller vehicle than Model 3, specifically built for fully autonomous driving (FSD), and will be produced at the Giga factory in Texas. The unveiling of Cybercab is expected to be the most significant moment for Tesla since the unveiling of Model 3 in 2016. Musk has repeatedly stated that this Tesla Robotaxi unveiling event will not only showcase a brand new physical autonomous taxi, but also showcase "some other novel things".
Facing regulatory challenges
According to a report by 21st Century Business Herald in July, since Tesla officially announced the upcoming release of Robotaxi in April this year, the design scheme of the model has been a focus of public attention.
In May, Tesla officially released a teaser video for Robotaxi. Although the video provides some interesting details, such as the front bumper design resembling Tesla's Cybertruck pickup truck, as well as the integrated seats and display screen inside the car.
But the most important thing is still the core design idea that Tesla Robotaxis does not have pedals and steering wheels and is completely controlled by the auto drive system.
Subsequently, a series of Tesla Robotaxi design concept images frequently appeared on social media, but it was proven that they were not officially released by Tesla.
At the conference call, Tesla first confirmed the news of the delayed release of Robotaxi and announced that Robotaxi will be produced at its Texas factory in the future.
But the attending investors are more concerned that even if Tesla Robotaxi is released, its design without steering wheel and pedals will be difficult to fully hit the road in the United States.
We believe that one of the barriers to the release of Robotaxi lies in whether the regulatory authorities approve it. Can the management discuss which laws and regulations we should focus on, such as the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS)? "A Barclays Bank analyst questioned," Will Tesla consider the differences between different states in the United States and promote the implementation of Robotaxi state by state
And Musk's response still has the characteristic of his grandiose words.
What we are adopting is more like a universal solution. If tailored to local conditions, the situation will become very complex and the solution will be very fragile, "Musk said." Therefore, what we hope to adopt is a universal solution that is applicable to all countries, regions, and even planets around the world
However, Musk's response to questions about compliance with federal motor vehicle safety standards is significant.
As long as we can prove its safety, or at least far safer than humans, regulatory authorities will support it, "Musk said." If we can provide billions of miles of test data to prove that in the future, FSD is safer than human drivers without supervision, then no regulatory agency will stop this technology
This article combines 21st Century Business Herald (Reporter: Zhao Yunfan), Daily Economic News, Open Source Securities Research Report, and Public Information