Tesla's Robotaxi Announced: Most Important Day After Model 3 Launch?
On September 26th, Tesla officially announced that the Tesla Robotaxi self-driving taxi would be officially launched on October 10th, California time (October 11th, Beijing time). Almost simultaneously, Tesla CEO Elon Musk also posted a Robotaxi poster on social channels, stating that "this will go down in history."
The Tesla Robotaxi service was originally scheduled to be launched in August of this year, but Musk said that more time was needed for the team to manufacture and refine the car prototypes, thus delaying its release.
It is reported that the aforementioned launch event will be held at the Warner Bros. film studio in the Los Angeles area. Not long before this, a Warner Bros. employee claimed on social media that a small vehicle with a unique appearance and heavily disguised had appeared, which is likely to be the upcoming Tesla Robotaxi self-driving taxi.
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Amidst the slowing growth of global electric vehicle sales and intensifying market competition, although automotive business remains Tesla's main business, its profitability has become increasingly weak. Over the past three years, Tesla's automotive business gross margin has been halved. In the current situation where electric vehicles are becoming less profitable, autonomous driving has become the hope for Tesla's future market value growth.
In this context, the significance of Robotaxi for Tesla is self-evident. Cathie Wood, CEO of Ark Investment Management, once estimated that by 2030, the entire market will generate about $80 to $100 trillion in revenue, half of which will flow to platforms like Tesla.
Musk once stated on social media that October 10th will be the most important day for Tesla since the launch of the Model 3. On September 25th, Musk again publicly warmed up for Robotaxi, saying that when Tesla releases unsupervised fully self-driving cars, buses will no longer be needed by people, because Tesla can transport people from the starting point to the destination at a cost similar to that of buses.
Regarding the specific time for the actual use of Robotaxi, Tesla said in the second quarter financial report conference call this year that it could be by the end of this year or at the latest next year.
However, for the real commercial use of Tesla Robotaxi, in addition to the need to solve technical challenges, more importantly, the perfection of relevant policies and regulatory approval is needed. Tesla executives said in the second quarter financial report conference call this year that Tesla can only start providing unmanned taxi services to customers when FSD (full self-driving) can be used without supervision. "The specific deployment time of Robotaxi depends on technological progress and regulatory approval."
To accelerate the implementation of autonomous driving, Tesla is promoting FSD to obtain regulatory approval in major global markets. It is reported that Tesla FSD may obtain permission in the Chinese and European markets by the end of this year.
As of the closing on September 25th, Eastern Time, Tesla's stock price rose by 1.08% to $257.02, and the cumulative increase since September this year has reached 20%.Affected by the aforementioned news, today, the A-share driverless car concept (BK0802) saw unusual upward movement. As of 2:00 PM on September 26th, the driverless car concept index rose by 2.12% to 1147.01. In terms of individual stocks, Yutong Heavy Industries, RY Electronics, Rayma Precision, and Liancheng Electronics all hit the "10CM" daily limit up. Additionally, Juncheng Technology and Runhe Software both increased by more than 10%, with Mingzhi Electric and Siling Shares following suit.
