Musk’s Promised Robotaxi Unveil Delayed

AFP/APP

Los Angeles: Tesla fans were kept waiting on Thursday for the unveiling of Elon Musk’s robotaxi, years after the brash billionaire first promised a car that could drive itself.

The company’s CEO is a master showman, whose ability to generate hype has helped make Tesla the world’s best-selling EV and propelled the firm’s share price sky high, making him the richest man on the planet in the process.

And he’s currently employing those talents in the service of Republican Donald Trump, echoing the billionaire presidential candidate’s dire warnings about migrants and a crumbling America, including during an exuberant appearance at a weekend Trump rally that was widely mocked.

Little is known about what to expect at Thursday’s unveiling at an event dubbed “We, Robot” (a play on Isaac Asimov’s sci-fi classic I, Robot) that will take place at the Warner Brothers studio lot near Los Angeles.

But more than 40 minutes after it was supposed to start, tens of thousands of people waiting to see the livestream were left watching the product of a graphics generator.

Various crypto scams were stepping into the breach on YouTube, with AI-generated Musks urging viewers to send their Bitcoins for supposed huge profits.

Musk told users on X — the platform formerly known as Twitter — that event staff were dealing with an emergency. “A person in the crowd had a medical emergency. We have taken care of them and will be starting shortly,” he wrote.

The launch will be closely watched — both by the boosters who are convinced he is a visionary changing the world and by the skeptics who increasingly see an emperor with threadbare clothes. “We believe wide-scale Tesla robotaxi deployment is unlikely within the coming years,” said a note from UBS last month.

“That is not to say Tesla isn’t making technological progress, but Tesla needs to show that the tech is ready and safe, deal with a myriad of local regulations and (potentially) figure out logistics and operations of a transportation network company.”

On the bullish side, analysts at Wedbush predicted Thursday’s event will be a “seminal and historical day” for Tesla, ushering in a new chapter of growth for autonomous technology.