Tesla's CEO Musk announced on his social media platform X on Friday that Tesla's Robotaxi will debut on August 8th.

Boosted by the news, the stock rose nearly 4% in post market trading. As of Friday's close, Tesla's stock price has fallen by about 34% this year.

Robotaxi is Tesla's autonomous taxi program. In April 2019, Tesla announced that it expected to start operating autonomous taxis by 2020. The company predicts that these autonomous vehicle can be used for 11 years and travel 1 million miles, bringing profits of 30000 dollars for the company and car operators every year.

Tesla is not the first car company to target autonomous taxis, and several companies including Alphabet subsidiary Waymo and General Motors subsidiary Cruise are also developing autonomous taxi services.

Is Tesla's Autopilot Ready?？

Since Tesla wants to launch Robotaxi, it will inevitably require its autonomous driving to cooperate. So, is Tesla ready for autonomous driving?

At present, Tesla's fully autonomous driving function can be purchased with the new Model 3, adding an additional $12,000 to the new car purchase price of approximately $40000. This feature can also be subscribed for purchase, up to $199 per month, depending on the initial configuration of the car.

Although Tesla has started launching its autonomous driving function, according to the latest third-party test report, its autonomous driving is not yet as reassuring.

At the end of last year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) conducted an investigation into Tesla's autonomous driving accident. Tesla announced that it would recall over 2 million vehicles in the United States and update the software of its Autopilot active driving assistance (ADA) system. Recently, Consumer Reports conducted tests on Tesla's updated ADA.

According to Consumer Reports, based on test results, the changes made by Tesla may not fully address many of the safety issues raised by NHTSA. Kelly Funkhouser, Deputy Director of Vehicle Technology at Consumer Reports Automotive Testing Center, said, "Tesla's remedial measures only addressed some minor inconveniences, not the real issues."

William Wallace, Deputy Director of Safety Policy at Consumer Reports, said, "Based on the investigation results, NHTSA should immediately re-examine this recall and demand that Tesla take stronger measures to protect people's safety." Wallace added, "NHTSA should not wait for more collisions to occur before taking action. NHTSA should take immediate action to make this recall better."

Is the low-priced Tesla car plan cancelled?

On the eve of Musk's announcement about Robotaxi, there were media reports that Tesla had cancelled its project to produce low-cost electric vehicles. The report stated that Musk had already issued instructions at the end of February, requiring the company to fully develop Robotaxi.

Previously, it was reported that Tesla plans to start producing a new electric vehicle codenamed "Redwood" in mid-2025. At Tesla's Q4 2023 earnings conference call, Musk also stated, "Our team is launching the next generation of cars at a super factory in Texas."

”Musk said, "We have made significant progress in the next generation of low-cost cars." He mentioned that Tesla currently plans to start production at some point in the second half of 2025. He did not disclose any further information besides that.

Over the weekend, Musk responded to media reports that his next-generation car project had been cancelled. Musk claimed that the leaked media was lying, but did not provide specific details.In the biography of Musk released last year, it was mentioned that Musk had considered suspending his plans for a new generation of electric vehicles in 2022, citing that Tesla Robotaxi would make the car irrelevant, but Musk's advisors urged him to persevere until the end.

Musk seems unlikely to give up producing the next generation of low-cost cars.

On the one hand, the competition for electric vehicles is extremely fierce now, especially in the Chinese market. Low prices have become a major killer for many car companies to boost sales. If Tesla wants to maintain market share, it must launch products with more competitive prices.

On the other hand, giving up on producing low-cost cars is not very in line with Musk's original intention. As early as 2006, when Musk formulated the first "master plan" for the company, it was stated that luxury car models should be manufactured first, and then profits should be used to fund "low-cost family cars."

The current cheapest model of Tesla, the Model 3 sedan, has a retail price of approximately $39000 in the United States. The starting price for Tesla's next generation of cars is expected to be $25000.