Tesla Robotaxi has been a top priority for Elon Musk lately. He recently confirmed a leak through his Twitter handle regarding the functionality of the Model 3 Robotaxi.
He also revealed several hidden features of the upcoming self-autonomous electric cars.
There is a dashboard camera in all Tesla electric cars, whose purpose was vague until Elon revealed it on Twitter recently. Its primary goal is to record videos of passengers inside the cabin.
As these taxis will be driverless, the objective of these cameras is to check if any passenger harms the interior of the car and to ensure their safety as well.
This is most likely for Robotaxis, if they vandalize your car, it's on camera and they'll pay for the damage and possibly get charge criminally.
— Marty Tee (@MartyTee2) April 12, 2020
Earlier this month, the company revealed an update for a similar feature called Sentry Mode. It is a surveillance feature in Tesla electric cars. Sentry Mode is used to record videos through several cameras to monitor any vandalizing event on the exterior of the vehicle.
Tesla Robotaxi Is Not Coming Soon
Tesla’s Robotaxi is part of the company’s ‘full self-driving capability’ plan. To accomplish this, Tesla intends to expand and improve its Autopilot System as much as possible. These taxis will simply work through an app like UBER; the only difference is that there will be no driver in the car. The vehicle will unlock itself through a cell phone.
In China, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Tesla is using similar technology to prevent people from engaging in direct contact. Electric cars for deliveries and test driving are being sent through autonomous driving.
Furthermore, in 2019, Elon announced that the company plans to deploy around 1 million Robotaxis by the end of 2020.
However, he tweeted today that Robotaxi vehicles are contingent on regulatory norms. Allowing Tesla Robotaxis on such a large scale is a big decision, one that requires stringent testing. Even the slightest mistake can lead to an accident.
In our opinion, Tesla has the best functioning autonomous driving system in the industry right now. However, some incidents over the past years also point towards some of its crucial shortcomings.
Although Musk believes in bringing Robotaxi by the end of 2020, considering his recent tweet, it seems it will be a long process.
