Elon Musk confirms delay of Tesla robotaxi to rework key elements

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has confirmed reports that a planned unveiling of his company’s robotaxi in early August will be delayed, promising “an important design change to the front”.

Bloomberg reported late last week that Tesla was postponing unveiling of its robotaxi from August 8 to October to allow teams working on the project more time to build additional prototypes.

Citing “people familiar with the decision”, Bloomberg estimated that a “roughly two month delay” had been communicated internally to the design team who were told to rework certain elements of the car.

Elon Musk, taking to his preferred communication platform, X, formerly Twitter, which he acquired in 2022, replied to a user post discussing the delayed unveiling to say that he had “Requested what I think is an important design change to the front, and extra time allows us to show off a few other things.”

Very little has been revealed about Tesla’s so-called “robotaxi” – an autonomous driving vehicle designed from the ground up for self-driving passenger transport.

Elon Musk was reported as saying in September 2023 that the robotaxi would have “no mirrors, no pedals, no steering wheel” and that the “vehicle must be designed as a clean robotaxi.”