Elon Musk unveils plans to put one million Tesla robo-taxis on the road next year
Tesla will launch a self-driving taxi service in 2020, Elon Musk has said.
The chief executive said the electric car company would have "over a million robotaxis" on the road next year.
At a presentation for investors about the company's autonomous technology Mr Musk unveiled a new section of the company's app which he said Tesla owners would be able to use to make money by adding their car to a fleet of taxis, which would operate without drivers.
"I feel very confident predicting autonomous robotaxis for Tesla next year," he told analysts at an event at Tesla's headquarters in Palo Alto, California.
He said the company would be producing cars without pedals or a steering wheel within two years.
"The probability of the steering wheel being removed in future is 100pc", Mr Musk added. "Consumers will demand in the future that people are not allowed to drive these two-tonne death machines."
Tesla has faced criticism for overselling the capability of its driver-assistance technology, known as Autopilot.
According to Tesla's manuals, the system requires supervision and a driver's hands on the wheel at all times, but videos have emerged of drivers sleeping, eating and moving around while the car is in motion, and there have been some high-profile fatalities.
Mr Musk has also been pictured removing his hands from the wheel in promotional and media videos.
Tesla would take a 25 to 30pc cut of owners' earnings from the service, and a robotaxi operating for 11 years as part of the service would produce gross profit of $30,000 per year, at a cost of $0.18 per mile.
The first phase of the service will involve Model 3 cars, Tesla's newest and most affordable model, which have been bought back from customers who have leased them.
To populate the fleet, customers who lease a Model 3 will not be able to buy the car at the end of their lease period, Mr Musk said.
In a jibe at his detractors, Mr Musk added said that he had been called a "fraud and a liar" when the company announced its second car, the Model S, in 2008.
"There is still, in 2019, no car that can compete with the Model S of 2012," he said. "All these things - I said we’d do it, we did it. Only criticism, and it's a fair one, is sometimes I’m not on time. But I get it done. The Tesla team gets it done."
