David Bridges
Elon Musk confirmed on Monday that Tesla’s robotaxi occasion scheduled for August has been delayed to October. The CEO replied on X (the previous Twitter, which he owns) to a person’s publish that he “requested what I believe is a vital design change to the entrance, and further time permits us to indicate off a number of different issues.”
Musk’s X publish seems to echo what Bloomberg reported final week. The publication claimed on July 11 that delaying the occasion would give Tesla extra time to construct extra prototypes. It added that the corporate had communicated the delay internally and that the design group was advised to “rework sure parts of the automotive,” which feels like Musk’s order to alter the entrance design.
The CEO stated in early April that the corporate would unveil the Tesla Robotaxi on August 8. The teaser got here on the identical day Reuters reported that Tesla was pulling the plug on a deliberate $25,000 finances mannequin (usually casually referred to externally because the Mannequin 2) in favor of a full-court push for robotaxis. Musk claimed Reuters was “mendacity” with out itemizing any particular factors of competition.
Just a few weeks later, Tesla reduce “greater than 10 p.c” of the corporate’s over 140,000 personnel (on the time). Two weeks after phrase of the layoffs broke, the EV maker let go of two senior executives as Musk warned workers that “we have to be completely arduous core about headcount and value discount.” In what gave the impression of a menace, he added, “Whereas some on exec workers are taking this critically, most aren’t but doing so.”
Tesla delivered almost seven p.c fewer automobiles within the first half of 2024 and produced almost 15 p.c fewer within the second quarter than in the identical interval in 2023.
Daniel Mercer
