Taxi Operating Unmanned Using Autonomous Driving Technology
Stock Recovers After Being Hit by Rumors of Low-Cost Electric Vehicle Plan Cancellation
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, announced plans to unveil an autonomous robo-taxi (driverless taxi) in August.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, speaking at the satellite conference and exhibition held in Washington DC, USA. Photo by Yonhap News
On the 5th (local time), Musk posted on his X (formerly Twitter) account, "Tesla robo-taxi will be unveiled on August 8." However, he did not disclose any other specific details about the robo-taxi.
Tesla has previously stated that its next-generation vehicle platform under development will include both low-cost electric vehicles and robo-taxis. Musk has also emphasized the robo-taxi project over the past several years.
According to Musk's past remarks, the robo-taxi project involves Tesla electric vehicles using their own autonomous driving technology to operate driverlessly, charging fares like a taxi while carrying passengers.
At the 'Tesla Autonomous Investor Day' event in April 2019, Musk said, "I am very confident that robo-taxis will be operating in 2020," and predicted that over one million Tesla autonomous vehicles would be on the roads by 2020, one year later.
The robo-taxi sector is already highly competitive, with companies like Waymo of Google Alphabet and Cruise of General Motors (GM) having entered the market.
Following Musk's announcement of the Tesla robo-taxi unveiling schedule, Tesla's stock price rose more than 4.5% in after-hours trading, trading around $172. Tesla's stock closed at $164.90, down 3.63% from the previous day during regular trading on the New York Stock Exchange, but rebounded in after-hours trading to a level similar to the previous closing price. Earlier that day, media reports emerged that Tesla was scrapping its plan to produce low-cost electric vehicles, which affected the stock price.
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