Latest news: Tesla's “We, Robot” event has ended, but there's still plenty of new information. The CyberCab, which Tesla is touting as the future of self-driving transportation, is a two-seater that can be purchased for less than $30,000. Later, in a surprise reveal, CEO Elon Musk unveiled a large robot van that can transport up to 20 people. Anthony Levandowski, co-founder of Google's self-driving car program, also broadly supported Musk's vision in an interview after the event.
Check out the full archive of events below. The 53 minutes of techno that preceded the actual event will be skipped. Or come back and follow our live blog from Thursday.
Tesla loves to put on a show, and Thursday's robotaxi announcement may be the showiest of them all.
The electric car maker plans to unveil its much-hyped robotaxi vehicle at the Warner Bros. Discovery movie studio in Burbank, California. For those in attendance, doors will open at 5pm PT today and the talk will begin at 7pm PT.
Tesla will livestream its “We, Robot” event on Musk's company X, and automakers typically livestream events on their YouTube pages. Considering the technical issues faced by X live streams, YouTube backup is a wise option. A live blog about the event can be found here.
Musk first teased a robotaxi event in April and set the announcement date for Aug. 8, but Tesla was forced to postpone that date due to “significant design changes on the front.”
Robotaxis appear to have arrived at the expense of the $25,000 next-generation electric vehicle that Musk also promised. Weeks after Musk announced his robotaxi event, he cut more than 10% of Tesla's workforce and said the automaker was “running up against a wall in its quest for autonomy.”
Mr. Musk has long promised that Tesla cars would have self-driving capabilities. The company's advanced driver assistance system has the rather brazen name Fully Self-Driving (FSD), but it is not fully autonomous and does require a human driver to pay attention and take over driving when necessary. , this fact has been confirmed once again. drive along video What fans regularly post on social media.
When Musk first broached the idea of robotaxis in 2019, the idea was to allow some existing Teslas to function as autonomous robotaxis with just a software update, allowing Tesla owners to drive The idea was that there could be an opportunity to earn money from cars when there wasn't. The plan, which was supposed to have millions of robotaxis on the road by 2020, has not yet been implemented. At the time, Musk said Tesla would offer dedicated robotaxis in places where there aren't enough people to share a car.
We expect this announcement, which reminds us of a Hollywood studio, to be less about self-driving technology and more about the vehicle itself. Musk has said he wants to build a robotaxi without a steering wheel or pedals, and drew inspiration for the Cybertruck from an image of the vehicle included in Walter Isaacson's biography of Elon Musk published in 2023. A two-door, two-seater robot taxi has been unveiled. compact vehicle.
Whatever the event brings, stay tuned as TechCrunch will be tracking it live and bringing you news as it happens.
This post was updated after Tesla's We, Robot event ended.