Tesla’s plans are changing and this was revealed a few days ago. After having focused on the creation of its robotaxi, the brand now seems to be changing its priorities again. The event that was supposed to take place in a few days has now been confirmed to be postponed, coming from Elon Musk himself, who also explained the reason for this decision.
Elon Musk: Robotaxi event postponed until October
Elon Musk confirmed Monday that Tesla's robotaxi event scheduled for August has been postponed until October. The Tesla CEO responded on X to a post from a user who "requested what I consider a major design change on the front end, and the extra time allows us to show some other things."
Musk’s X post appears to confirm what was reported last week. It was stated that postponing the event would give Tesla more time to build additional prototypes. It was also revealed that the company communicated the delay internally and that the design team was instructed to “rework certain elements of the car,” which sounds like an order from Musk to change the front-end design.
The CEO said in early April that the company would unveil the Tesla robotaxi on August 8. The teaser came the same day it was reported that Tesla was discontinuing a planned lower-budget €25,000 model, which was dubbed the Model 2.
Requested what I think is an important design change to the front, and extra time allows us to show off a few other things
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 15, 2024
Tesla's plans are adapting to the market
This move was in favor of an all-out legal push for robotaxis. Elon Musk claimed at the time that Reuters was “lying” without listing any specific points of contention. A few weeks later, Tesla cut “more than 10%” of the company’s more than 140,000 employees.
Two weeks after news of the layoffs broke, the electric vehicle maker fired two senior executives. At the same time, Elon Musk warned staff that “we need to be absolutely tough on headcount and cost reduction.”
In what sounded like a threat, he added: “While some members of the executive team are taking this seriously, the majority are not yet doing so.” Tesla will deliver nearly 7 percent fewer vehicles in the first half of 2024 and produce nearly 15 percent fewer in the second quarter than in the same period in 2023.
Source: pplware.sapo.pt
