There are several things to know about the anticipated creation of a car fromtesla tonight
Tesla, Uber, and the Future: Tesla’s Robot Axis Fleet isn’t Going to Perturb Your Skepticisms
Now, Tesla has made a purpose-built autonomous electric vehicle, owned and operated by the company itself, more central to its future robotaxi fleet. Musk has likened the business model to a mix of Airbnb and Uber, but maintains, as he said in April, that “there will be some number of cars that Tesla owns itself and operates in the fleet.”
An eccentric billionaire is going to give a speech on a futuristic technology that he promises will transform the world and then he will give it to a humanoid robot by his side.
Tesla makes money selling electric vehicles — in fact, its profit margins on its cars, which are consistently in the double digits, are enviable for an automaker. But Musk has his eye on the much fatter profit margins of the software industry.
Musk has always maintained that demand for the software will be higher when it’s fully self driving because it will allow people to make money off of their personal vehicles by lending them out.
“The value of a fully electric autonomous fleet is generally gigantic — boggles the mind, really.” he told investors in 2021. “That will be one of the most valuable things that’s ever done in the history of civilization.”
While there are plenty of reasons to be skeptical about the future of transportation, Elon Musk has a track record of proving skeptics wrong.
Despite the fact that Cruise put human safety drivers back behind the wheel after a crash last year, companies are still putting self-drive taxis on the streets. A person can be called in to assist if the car gets stuck. But that’s a far cry from needing constant oversight: According to data it supplied the state of California, Waymo drove nearly 1.2 million fully driverless miles last year with a total of 14 “disengagements,” or times the software required manual control.
Even for those companies, robotaxis aren’t profitable yet. The auto market research giant J.D. Power recently surveyed people who have ridden in robotaxis and found that while passengers generally liked the experience, they don’t find the taxis practical. The service will remain a novelty until it is cheaper and more reliable, according to the pollsters.
Musk decided to build a system based only on relatively cheap cameras, with no other inputs; other companies also use radar and other pricey high-tech sensors. Musk also has embraced “end-to-end learning,” where the artificial intelligence “learns” how to drive from raw data; other companies add human-designed rules and guardrails to their AI systems.
In an email, Aurora mentioned that the company’s chief performance officer said thatTesla used a’train and pray’ approach to fix a problem. It’s problematic in a safety-critical industry where you need confidence and proof you’ve fixed it.
The first partial-automation system was launched by Anderson at Tesla, according to theAurora email. Waymo just snagged a former Tesla exec for its team, too.
What Regulators Can and Can’t Do When It Comes To An End-to-End Autonomy? The Case of an Autonomous Driver
A patchwork of state and city regulators sets the boundaries of what companies can and can’t do when it comes to self- driving.
Musk has always acknowledged that achieving full self-driving is not just a matter of technological innovation; if regulators aren’t convinced a robotaxi fleet is safe, it isn’t going anywhere.
That has implications for the physical design of vehicles. Cruise abandoned their plans for a car with no steering wheel because they wanted to reduce the risk of running afoul of regulators.
And governmental concerns could also affect software. Gianarikas says regulators who dig into the coding of a system built by “end-to-end” deep learning might not like what they find.
There’s a scenario where regulators have this moment, like ‘What?’ You don’t have hard-coded software rules? He says it is true. “‘How do you control it?’”
Ives: A Buzzfeeding Robot? Optimus at the Tesla Semi-Expansion on Thursday, April 17 at 10 p.m
Tesla sent out invites to the event with the title “We, Robot,” a reference to Isaac Asimov’s seminal work I, Robot. It could mean that we get a new update on the company’s humanoid robot. But we’ll have to watch the livestream to find out, as the company has only invited a limited number of people, including investors and influencers.
Optimus, a black and white robot with a featureless face of smooth black glass, can walk — in a stilted, gliding sort of way. The electric company has posted videos on its website of it standing and dancing.
Dan Ives, an analyst and a long-time Tesla bull, will be in attendance on Thursday night. He’s less interested in androids and more in whether Musk can demonstrate a fully autonomous vehicle that actually works.
The last time Tesla had an Apple-style “one more thing” surprise was the reveal of the new Tesla Roadster at the Tesla Semi event in 2017. The Roadster still hasn’t entered production, but now Musk says that’ll happen next year. We could also just get an update on the expected “Juniper” redesign of the Model Y.
Musk has indicated to shareholders that a new and cheaper Tesla is back on the menu after early reports suggested it was being scrapped. A $25,000 Tesla could disrupt the EV market by finally fulfilling the demand for cheaper electric cars and could compete with lower-cost Chinese EVs.
The main draw of the show will be therobotaxi. It will be fascinating to hear Musk discuss his vision for the future with so much riding on it.
