Elon Musk detailed the road Tesla would have to take to sell Optimus and Robotaxi affordably as the company continues to strive toward offering autonomy and artificial intelligence to consumers at a low price.
Tesla’s Robotaxi and Optimus programs are among the two most groundbreaking things the company is working on, outside of the Full Self-Driving suite.
Robotaxi and FSD go hand-in-hand, especially considering the success of Tesla’s fully autonomous car, which has no steering wheel or pedals is completely reliant on self-driving being solved.
Add in the prospect of having somewhat of a Tesla assistant in your home with Optimus. “It will walk your dog, it will watch your kid,” Musk said at the We, Robot event in October that saw the Robotaxi unveiled to the public for the first time.
Eventually, Tesla will have the opportunity to offer both of these products to consumers. In a perfect world, it will happen in two years. Tesla plans to have the Robotaxi out “by 2027.” We wouldn’t be surprised if things worked closer toward 2030, as Tesla has a tendency to be very aggressive with timelines.
Regardless of when it comes out, affordability is going to be a priority of these two products. Tesla has said that Optimus will be available for between $20,000 and $30,000. The Robotaxi will be priced at around $30,000 as well, Tesla says.
Bringing both of these products to consumers for the cost of what many pay for a car on its own that is not autonomous would be an incredible deal if Tesla can manage to pull it off.
Musk said in a post on X earlier today that Tesla will manage to offer the pair for $60,000, but it will take a large figure in terms of production volumes to achieve this:
“We need to reach >1M/year production volumes, but, long-term, yes.”
What investors will want to see from Tesla before affordability is brought up is a constant improvement on the FSD platform and updates on Robotaxi production.
FSD has been working toward less restriction for a few years and now allows for hands-free driving. Drivers are still monitored through the cabin camera, but for the most part, FSD users generally report improvements.
We need to reach >1M/year production volumes, but, long-term, yes https://t.co/WE39TnhTdf
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 21, 2024
Optimus was impressive at We, Robot, and although they were controlled by humans, we have seen Tesla utilize fully autonomous bots in its factories:
Tesla shares Optimus’ most recent breakthroughs in update video
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