Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, speaks during the Milken Global Conference 2024 at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California on May 6, 2024.
David Swanson | Reuters
You’re here Shares closed down about 8% Thursday after Bloomberg reported that the electric vehicle maker was delaying the unveiling of its Robotaxi by two months.
After announcing it would unveil its robotaxi on Aug. 8, Tesla pushed back the launch to October to give teams working on the project more time to build prototypes, according to Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the decision.
Tesla did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Tesla’s stock plunge Thursday followed an 11-day rally sparked by a better-than-expected second-quarter delivery report. That jump erased the stock’s loss for the year. However, shares are now back in negative territory for 2024, a year that has been marred by massive layoffs and declining sales due in part to an aging EV lineup and increased competition in China.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been promising shareholders a robotaxi for years. In 2015, he said Tesla cars would achieve “full autonomy” within three years. In 2016, Musk said Tesla would be able to send one of its cars on a cross-country tour without any human intervention by the end of the following year.
The empty promises continued in 2019, when Musk said on a call with institutional investors that Tesla would have one million robotaxi-ready vehicles on the road by 2020. However, the company has yet to deliver a robotaxi, self-driving vehicle, or technology that could turn its cars into “Level 3” automated vehicles. Alphabet Waymo and Cruise, owned by General Motorshave overtaken Tesla.
After a disappointing first-quarter earnings report in April, Musk reiterated his vision of Tesla as a company dedicated to developing robotaxis that will make money for their owners and a driverless transportation network.
“If someone doesn’t believe Tesla is going to solve the autonomy problem, I don’t think they should invest in the company,” Musk said on the company’s earnings call. The company is scheduled to report second-quarter results later this month.
At Tesla, “unveil” dates do not predict when a new product will be commercially available in the near future. For example, Tesla unveiled its all-electric heavy-duty truck, the Semi, in 2017, and didn’t begin deliveries until December 2022.
—CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.
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