Tesla CEO Elon Musk has openly commented that he wants build a robotic taxi with a totally futuristic designa very ambitious goal that, however, has not been accompanied by a specific release date, so right now we only have his word on the table, nothing beyond that.
There is no doubt that Elon Musk has achieved important achievements in the world of electric and intelligent cars, but what the executive proposes goes far beyond what we have seen so far. Musk talks about a totally robotic taxi that would be able to work completely autonomously, which means that we would be looking at a vehicle with autonomous driving of grade 4, at least, and that it should have an AI advanced enough to manage basic interactions with customers and charging them.
It goes without saying that the complexity of this robotic taxi would be very great at a technical level, and that before being able to circulate normally through the streets of a big city should pass a demanding period of varied tests that, in the end, could become a difficult wall to overcome if the conjunction between technology, mechanics and AI is not perfectly in tune.
As for the date on which it could be available, Elon Musk did not say anything, but last January he commented that It would be a “shock” for him if Tesla was not able to shape an autonomous driving system this yearand also added that this system will be safer than any human at the wheel, something that confirms that Tesla is going all out in this regard, and that its autonomous driving systems could end up marking the future of the industry in the medium and long term.
Personally, I think fully autonomous cars are still a few years away from becoming mainstream, and as long as they pass those tests without problem that they will have to face in order to carve out a niche for themselves on our streets. Tesla is one of the companies that is betting more strongly on achieving this step in the automobile sector, and therefore it should be one of the first to achieve it, at least in theory.
