Elon Musk confirms Tesla 'robotaxi' event delayed due to design change
Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed Monday earlier reports the company was delaying its robotaxi reveal, explaining it was because he requested an "important design change to the front."
Bloomberg News reported last week Tesla was pushing the event to October. It had been aiming for an August 8 event. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Tesla shares fell more than 6% immediately following the report, but have since recovered.
Musk responded to a question posed in a post on X, the social media network he owns, explaining the reason for the delay.
"Requested what I think is an important design change to the front, and extra time allows us to show off a few other things," he wrote.
Musk first teased the robotaxi event in April, on the same day that Reuters reported the company was shelving plans for a new vehicle built on a next-generation platform that would cost around $25,000. Musk denied that report on his social media platform X.
Tesla had internally planned to build the dedicated robotaxi and the $25,000 car — often referred to as the Model 2 by fans and watchers of the company — on the same platform. But Musk has waffled on the idea of building a new vehicle with a steering wheel and pedals and instead has favored going all-in on the robotaxi.
Just a few weeks after Musk announced the robotaxi event, he slashed more than 10% of Tesla's global workforce and said the company was going “balls to the wall for autonomy."
Musk has a history of announcing things to the public that many of his own employees aren't aware of, forcing them to scramble. In February, he posted on X about how the long-delayed second generation Tesla Roadster is going to be capable of going even faster than originally promised -- an announcement that surprised the Roadster development team, according to The Information.
Musk's robotaxi event announcement similarly took employees by surprise, according to one person familiar with the matter, who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity.
