Tesla ‘Dedicated Robotaxi’ to Reach 'Volume Production' in 2024: Musk

Tesla lost about a month of “build volume” in its Shanghai factory due to COVID-19 shutdowns, said Chief Financial Officer Zachary Kirkhorn on a Q1 earnings call Wednesday: “Production is resuming at limited levels, and we’re working to get back to full production as quickly as possible.” CEO Elon Musk said that of all the technology development he has ever been involved in, he has never seen more “false dawns” than in the effort to commercialize “full self-driving,” where it seems “like we’re going to break through, but we don’t.” For anyone to “solve” full self-driving, “you actually have to solve real-world artificial intelligence, which nobody has solved,” he said. “We have to solve neural nets and cameras to a degree of capability that is on par with or really exceeds humans, and I think we will achieve that this year.” Musk offered few new details about the “dedicated robotaxi” it’s developing in Texas, except to say it will be “highly optimized for autonomy, meaning it would not have a steering wheel or pedals.” Tesla doesn’t want to “jump the gun on an exciting product announcement,” he said. “We’ll aim to do a product event for robotaxi next year and get into more detail, but we are aiming for volume production in 2024.”