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How consumers view robotaxis ahead of Tesla’s ‘We, Robot’ event: study
Ahead of Tesla’s Robotaxi unveiling event on Thursday, one firm has released data suggesting that early consumer experience with driverless ride-hailing platforms has generally been positive.
On Tuesday, J.D. Power shared the results of its 2024 U.S. Robotaxi Experience study, which found that, on average, consumers ranked driverless ride-hailing experiences an 8.53 out of 10. In its second year, the study surveyed 3,773 respondents along with 773 consumers who lived in cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Dallas, where robotaxi services are already available.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, consumer confidence in robotaxis was about substantially higher in those who had prior experience in one of the self-driving vehicles, landing at 76 percent, and well above the 20 percent for those who had not. Consumer confidence was also improved by public exposure to the technology, with 34 percent of those who had not ridden but had witnessed self-driving vehicles expressing some level of trust and acceptance.
Notably, these results suggest that sheer experience with robotaxi platforms — both riding inside them and seeing them on the street — tends to give consumers greater public trust in these driverless solutions. The results also come as the market for driverless ride-hailing continues to grow, as Tesla and other companies ready their commercial robotaxi offerings.
The study featured five categories, including comfort and convenience, initiating rides, taking rides in the given vehicle, service availability and cost, as well as overall vehicle technology. Responses for the study were fielded in August.
What's special about FSD Supervised is that it works anywhere in the US & Canada.
No high definition maps, no geofence.
This means you can even use it in places that no Tesla has never traveled to before
— Tesla AI (@Tesla_AI) October 4, 2024
The key findings also included that consumers regularly seek out safety features and easy access to authorities, such as the inclusion of an emergency button in robotaxis. Service area coverage and cost remain barriers for some consumers who haven’t tried the services out yet, with the vast majority of companies employing a mapping strategy to certain service areas.
“The robotaxi segment is still anyone’s game, given that most people are not familiar with robotaxi brands and haven’t formed a clear associative imagery,” said Kathleen Rizk, J.D. Power’s Senior Director of User Experience Benchmarking and Technology.
Other key findings include that consumers strongly value how well vehicles navigate traffic laws, and how well they perform when maneuvering regular traffic. In addition, 77 percent of rides said they would prefer a driverless robotaxi to a ride-share with a human driver when needing to have a private conversation.
You can view J.D. Power’s full study results for the 2024 Robotaxi Experience Study on the firm’s website here.
Currently, driverless ride-hailing services and tests are operated by the Google-owned company Waymo, May Mobility, Zoox, and Motional. Meanwhile, General Motors (GM) subsidiary Cruise was forced to halt self-driving operations last fall after an accident with a pedestrian, though it’s currently aiming to relaunch services by the end of this year.
While Tesla offers its Full Self-Driving (FSD) Supervised to customers, it doesn’t currently have the software available to consumers as a driverless ride-hailing system. However, the company is widely expected to unveil a ride-hailing service during its “We, Robot” event on Thursday, and it has already teased a mobile app ride-hailing platform.
The company’s FSD Supervised, eventually expected to become Unsupervised as Tesla targets the cars becoming safer than human drivers, is also one of the only self-driving softwares out there that doesn’t utilize area mapping. For that reason, Tesla has touted its ability to scale FSD beyond mapped-out service areas, especially when paired with the ongoing training of its AI neural network through real-time driving footage.
Apparent camouflaged Tesla Robotaxi prototype sighted at Warner Bros. Burbank
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Tesla has tentatively scheduled its unveiling event for the Roadster’s next-generation iteration, and you will not believe the date the company picked for it.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said during the 2025 Annual Shareholders Meeting that the company is aiming for an April 1 demo event.
Yes, April Fools’ Day.
🚨 Tesla’s unveiling event for the Roadster Gen 2 is scheduled for April 1, 2026.
Yes, April Fools’ Day. pic.twitter.com/sw09GUYFPV
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) November 6, 2025
Tesla originally aimed for its “most epic demo” to take place at the end of this year. However, the writing on the wall as 2025 winds down seemed to indicate the company was not quite ready to show off everything it plans to implement into the Roadster.
Its capabilities have been teased quite heavily throughout most of the year, but the biggest hints came last week when Musk appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast.
He said:
“Whether it’s good or bad, it will be unforgettable. My friend Peter Thiel once reflected that the future was supposed to have flying cars, but we don’t have flying cars. I think if Peter wants a flying car, he should be able to buy one…I think it has a shot at being the most memorable product unveil ever. [It will be unveiled] hopefully before the end of the year. You know, we need to make sure that it works. This is some crazy technology in this car. Let’s just put it this way: if you took all the James Bond cars and combined them, it’s crazier than that.”
The Roadster has been somewhat of a letdown, at least in its newest version, thus far. Tesla has routinely delayed the project, putting those who put lofty down payments on the car in a weird limbo, lost at what to do.
One notable pre-orderer cancelled his reservation last week and got in a spat with Musk about it.
Now that there is a definitive date for the Roadster unveiling, Musk and Co. should have a more definitive cutoff date for features and capabilities. Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen said earlier this year that when they showed Musk what they had done with the Roadster, the CEO encouraged them to do even more with it.
This delayed things further.
Musk also said he believes production would begin between 12 and 18 months after the unveiling, putting it out sometime in 2027.
Elon Musk
Tesla (TSLA) shareholders officially approve Elon Musk’s 2025 performance award
To earn his landmark pay package, Musk would be required to lift Tesla’s market capitalization from about $1.1 trillion today to $8.5 trillion over the next decade.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk has officially approved his 2025 Performance Award, a landmark pay package that could make him the world’s first trillionaire and make Tesla the most valuable company in the world by a mile.
The 2025 CEO Performance Award was officially approved by Tesla shareholders at the 2025 Annual Shareholder Meeting.
Elon Musk‘s landmark pay package
As per Tesla, more than 75% of the shareholders approved Elon Musk’s 2025 CEO Performance Award. It was then unsurprising that the approval of Elon Musk’s pay plan received overwhelming applause from the event’s attendees.
The CEO took to the stage with much enthusiasm, welcoming every shareholder to the event and dancing briefly on stage. Optimus also danced on stage smoothly, demonstrating its improved movements to much appause.
Elon Musk’s 10-year targets
To earn his 2025 CEO Performance Award, Musk would be required to grow Tesla’s market capitalization from about $1.1 trillion today to $8.5 trillion over the next decade. At that level, Tesla would surpass every major public company in existence. The compensation plan also requires Tesla’s operating profit to grow from $17 billion last year to $400 billion annually.
Apart from leading Tesla to become the world’s biggest company in history, Musk is also required to hit several product targets for the electric vehicle maker. These include the delivery of 20 million Tesla vehicles cumulatively, 10 million active FSD subscriptions, 1 million Tesla bots delivered, and 1 million Robotaxis in operation.
The 2025 Tesla Annual Shareholder Meeting from Gigafactory Texas is set to kick off at 4 p.m. EDT, 3 p.m. CDT.
The company will be having its typical presentation for the event, where CEO Elon Musk, along with other executives will discuss things like future products, the outlook of its self-driving development, potential releases for next year, and some current events within the company.
However, this year’s Shareholder Meeting has slightly more implications than others, as Investors and Shareholders have spent the last several months petitioning and supporting one of the proposals on the docket that could be the deciding factor in Musk staying or leaving Tesla.
Elon Musk’s new pay plan ties trillionaire status to Tesla’s $8.5 trillion valuation
Proposal four outlines a new compensation package for Musk that could give him $1 trillion in shares if he is able to complete a variety of lofty goals related to production, self-driving, and other important company projects.
Musk has said that he is truly after more influence on company decisions, especially as the Tesla Optimus program is ramping up and becoming a more relevant part of the company’s story.
The CEO said during the Q3 Earnings Call that he would not feel comfortable developing an “army of robots” if he did not have a comfortable amount of influence in some of the decisions. He could be voted our or out-influenced by what he calls “activist shareholders.”
One of those investors came after his past pay package, which was approved by shareholders not once, but twice. Musk still was not able to obtain the pay because of a Delaware Chancery Court ruling.
Nevertheless, this is one of the last ditch efforts Tesla is making to get Musk the compensation that he wants.
The meeting is set to kick off at 3 p.m. local time in Austin. You can watch it via the livestream on X:
Here is the link to Tesla’s 2025 Annual Shareholder Meeting:https://t.co/29dN4gkMWY
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) November 6, 2025
Tesla schedules Roadster unveiling event, and you won’t believe when it is
Tesla (TSLA) shareholders officially approve Elon Musk’s 2025 performance award
Tesla 2025 Annual Shareholder Meeting: How to watch
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