Elon Musk announced that Tesla is working on a fleet of autonomous Robotaxis

Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, is popular for two reasons. His outrageous tweets that have sometime landed him in trouble and secondly, his claims. At the recently held autonomy day event for investors in Palo Alto, California, Musk announced that his company is working on launching a fleet of autonomous Robotaxis that will be on road next year. Musk confirmed that his company will being a million Robotaxis next year. [caption id=“attachment_5293601” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”] Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks at an event in Palo Alto, California. Reuters[/caption] He also announced that present owners of Tesla cars can add their vehicles to the company’s ride-sharing app that will take on the likes of Lyft and Uber. These cars will be sent in autonomous mode to pick up riders. Also, the owners will have to share the revenue with Tesla, 23 to 30 percent to be precise. Elon Musk mentioned that the Tesla owners could earn up to $30,000 (Rs 20.95 lakh) a year by sharing their vehicles in the ride-sharing app. Musk also added that Robotaxis will be introduced in the regions where there is lack of Tesla cars which could be made a part of the ride-share app. At the event, Musk did not reveal much details about the launch of Robotaxis in terms of the regulations and approvals that the company would need to roll out this program. He commented that the company might not have regulatory approval in all places but seemed sure to be working on it. He also told his investors, “Sometimes I am not on time. But I get it done and the Tesla team gets it done,” The Robotaxis that will be introduced next year will be equipped with a new microchip, which according to Elon Musk, will give them full self-driving capability. Presently, the Tesla models that are sold in all countries do come with autonomous features which includes a sophisticated onboard computer, eight cameras that cover 360 degrees, front-facing radar, and short-range ultrasonic sensors. All Tesla needs to do is a share a sofware update on the cloud for the owners to download, converting an estimated 400,000 vehicles into full self-driving cars. Other ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft too are believed to be working on introducing a fleet of self-driving cars, the timelines for which have not been announced yet.