Elon Musk to unveil Tesla's new fully autonomous Robotaxi: Timings, expectations

Elon Musk is set to reveal the new Tesla Robotaxi, a Level 5 autonomous vehicle, part of his “cybercab” vision to compete with companies like Waymo

Elon Musk will be unveiling Tesla's new Robotaxi, a fully autonomous vehicle which has been in the making for nearly a decade.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk speaks at the SATELLITE Conference and Exhibition, March 9, 2020, in Washington. (Susan Walsh/AP)

The launch will happen in an event at the Warner Bros. Studios in California at 7 pm Pacific Time, which is 7:30 am IST on Friday.

Musk had been promising self-driving technology for all Tesla models since 2016, claiming it could even allow drivers to sleep and travel without any assistance.

So far, Tesla has introduced only driver-assist features such as Autopilot, Navigate on Autopilot, Full Self-Driving (FSD), and FSD Supervised. However, none of these make the cars autonomous.

What are the details of the Tesla Robotaxi?

The Robotaxi is to be a Level 5 autonomous vehicle. This means that they can drive without any human intervention required.

It may be a futuristic-looking two-seater with butterfly doors that open upwards.

The Robotaxi is part of Musk's “cybercab” vision for Tesla owners to use their cars as part-time taxis and thus, create a network of autonomous taxis.

It is to compete with companies like Waymo which already have autonomous taxi services in select areas in the US. However, the Robotaxi's autonomous system relies on cameras while Waymo's system uses LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) and radar.

However, Tesla's software has to deal with challenges including wet roads and sunlight glare for the cameras.

There are other challenges too. The company's sales have declined in the US and China as competition increases, and it is also facing regulatory scrutiny regarding safety concerns caused by Autopilot and FSD after the systems led to over 1,000 crashes which included 44 fatalities.