For a decade, Elon Musk has been claiming that one day Tesla cars will drive themselves as robotaxi.
Next week, the company will unveil the design of its autonomous taxis.
Despite years of bold predictions and missed deadlines, fans of the company are holding out hope that Elon Musk will finally impress at an event on October 10.
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Whatever the company's presentation on robotaxi day, experts remain skeptical about its strategy, citing Autopilot and FSD technology as indicators of Tesla's progress or lag.
During this decade that Elon Musk promised driverless vehicles, competitors moved forward with their construction.
See more: Tesla to launch Full Self-Driving in Europe next year
Waymo, owned by Alphabet, already has a commercial robo-taxi service in several US cities, with more than 100,000 paid rides per week since August.
Amazon -owned Zoox has begun testing employee rides in February 2023, with the goal of launching its own robotaxi service. Meanwhile, in China, Pony.ai and Baidu also offer commercial robotaxi services.
The market has the potential to be highly profitable. In an optimistic estimate, Raymond James predicts that annual robotaxi bookings will reach $50 billion by 2030.
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With the slowdown in the growth of electric vehicle sales in the US, there are several factors that may be driving Tesla towards autonomy.
Source: cnbc
