“Tesla Robotaxi unveil on August 8,” Musk posted on his social media platform X (formerly Twitter) without sharing details about the project.

Following the billionaire’s announcement, shares of his Austin, Texas-based electric vehicle manufacturer, rose by more than 3% in after-market trades.

Tesla’s Robotaxi

In April 2019, Tesla had said that it expected robotaxis to begin operating by 2020, and predicted that these autonomous vehicles would last 11 years and drive 1 million (10 lakh) miles, bringing a profit of $30,000 (approx. ₹25,00,000) each year.

Musk has said in the past that Tesla will make a car that humans can operate without control. The South African-born entrepreneur has also previously declared that company models equipped with Full Self-Driving (FSD) capability will, through software updates, gradually become “better and better at driving.”

“Models with FSD will be superhuman to such a degree that it will seem strange in the future that humans drove cars, even while exhausted and drunk!” he noted in a post on X, in March.

He has also stated that the owners of FSD-equipped Tesla vehicles will be able to have their cars serve as a robotaxi.

Currently, the Full Self-Driving capability is available with the new Tesla Model 3. For this, however, customers will have to pay $12,000 (approx. ₹10 lakh) in addition to Model 3’s roughly $40,000 (approx. ₹33,00,000) purchase price. Alternatively, the FSD can be purchased on a subscription basis at $199 (approx. ₹16,600) per month.

(With agency inputs)