Tesla relies on robotaxis despite weak car sales and failed Musk promises

Although the company is still in the early stages of developing and commercializing these technologies, it is getting away with it in the financial markets. And because the attention there is focused on these future areas, Tesla will also be forgiven for the fact that the sales of its cars have shrunk in the past two years. Musk is also criticized for failing to make his bold predictions time and time again. He once promised a million robotaxis by 2020, but Tesla is still a long way from achieving that. The company is even in the pursuit role in the competition; Google's sister company Waymo already operates an impressive fleet of fully autonomous robotaxis.

Musk sounds that Tesla will roll up the market from behind. Compared to Waymo, Tesla is taking a different approach with its robotaxis, which is cheaper and also controversial for safety reasons. Tesla's autonomous vehicles only use cameras to record their surroundings, while Waymo uses more complex systems. Musk argues that Tesla's robotaxis will scale up much more quickly and operate more economically than Waymo cars once they are ready for everyday use. It is therefore all the more important that Tesla is now transporting passengers in Austin, Texas, for the first time with its futuristic “Cybercab”, which has neither steering wheel nor pedals.

This is the moment when Musk's strategy, which doesn't sound implausible on paper, has to prove itself on the road. He now has to show that he can actually turn this still very limited test into a business model in a short time that will carry Tesla into the future. Given its history of broken promises, skepticism seems appropriate.