Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Tuesday that the automaker will reveal its purpose-built robotaxi on October 10. That's roughly two months later than it had initially planned.
On the automaker's second-quarter earnings call, Musk said he wanted to "make some important changes that I think would improve" the vehicle, which may be called the Cybercab. He also said that the delay would allow Tesla to "show off a couple of other things." He did not specify what that would be.
Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that Tesla was planning to delay the event by roughly two months, a fact Musk later acknowledged in a social media post. In April, Musk had said that Tesla would showcase its design for a self-driving vehicle on August 8.
Musk says that creating self-driving cars—including a taxi for its own future ride-hailing business—is critical for Tesla's future as a extraordinarily valuable AI company. But it's still unclear if Tesla can crack autonomous driving. It offers a feature called Full Self-Driving that requires driver supervision and often makes mistakes.
On Tuesday's call, Musk said in response to an investor question that Tesla could not start offering rides to customers until Full Self-Driving can be used unsupervised. In its earnings report issued Tuesday, Tesla said that the "timing of Robotaxi deployment depends on technological advancement and regulatory approval."
