Tesla plans to present its robotaxi at the beginning of August

(San Francisco) The American electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla plans to present its robotaxi, a driverless vehicle, on August 8, its boss Elon Musk said Friday evening on the social network X.

The billionaire posted a very succinct message on the old Twitter network, of which he also owns: “Presentation of the Tesla robotaxi on 08/08”.

In the process, Tesla shares jumped 6% in electronic trading after the New York Stock Exchange closed.

Elon Musk never misses the opportunity to extol the merits of Tesla’s technologies for autonomous driving of electric vehicles.

He also hypothesized that owners of so-called “FSD” Tesla vehicles — for full self-driving, 100% autonomous driving — operate them as robotaxi when they are not using them, rather than leaving them at garage until needed.

“Most people still have no idea how freakishly good Tesla’s FSD will be,” he posted on X in March.

“It will be superhuman to such a degree that it will seem strange, in the future, (to conceive) that humans have driven cars, even when tired and drunk,” he added.

But the development of the robotaxi has encountered some pitfalls, particularly related to concerns from regulatory authorities and the public about safety.

The manufacturer announced disappointing sales in the first quarter on Tuesday, in a less dazzling electric vehicle market than expected in the United States in 2023 while competition from traditional manufacturers increases.

And Tesla is also struggling in China, with strong competition from local manufacturers and, above all, from BYD which took away the title of largest global seller of electric vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Furthermore, Elon Musk half-heartedly denied press reports on Friday according to which Tesla had abandoned its long-standing project to produce a low-cost electric vehicle, around US$25,000, intended to spread the adoption of this motorization to a wider audience.

In California, where sales of electric vehicles are particularly dynamic, greenhouse gas emissions have fallen in certain areas, according to a study published Thursday.

Thanks to a network of sensors installed from 2012 around San Francisco Bay (where electric cars are now legion), scientists from the prestigious University of California at Berkeley observed a constant drop in carbon dioxide levels ( CO₂) issued each year.

The CO₂ is the main greenhouse gas and major cause of climate change.