Musk’s “We, Robot” event: what to expect and how to watch

Tesla is set to unveil its robotaxi and possibly demonstrate its humanoid robot Optimus, dubbed Tesla Bot.

This Thursday, at 7 p.m. PT at Warner Bros studio in California, Tesla is holding its “We, Robot” event, where the company should finally announce its autonomous driving cab, called robotaxi.

Back in April, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company would unveil an autonomous Taxi on August 8th. However, the event was later postponed due to “design changes.” Now, the company is ready to reveal the robotaxi to the public.

In addition to the taxi, we’re likely to hear more news related to the “We, Robot” topic, particularly about Tesla’s Optimus robot. Previously, Musk commented that the company will have genuinely useful humanoid robots in low production for Tesla's internal use in 2025.

As usual, the company will likely stream the event live on its YouTube channel and via X.

Fierce competition

We don’t know much about the upcoming Tesla robotaxi, also called Cybercab.

To drive its current cars, the company relies on cameras and artificial intelligence with driver supervision. They don’t have the costly additional hardware associated with radar systems and lidar technology that other robotaxi players use.

According to Reuters, Musk expects that improving this technology will let him crack a still-nascent and tightly regulated industry that has resulted in billions of dollars in losses for others.

Bringing self-driving vehicles to market has proven time-consuming and costly for other companies.

Alphabet's Waymo is the only US firm operating uncrewed robotaxis that collect fares. Others still in the race include General Motors' Cruise – re-launching robotaxis with a safety driver after an accident last fall forced it to halt operations – and Amazon's Zoox, which is expanding testing of its self-driving taxis that come without steering wheels and pedals.

To keep Tesla's costs in check, Musk has decided to steer clear of sensors beyond cameras. The company could potentially develop the first generation of Cybercab on its existing platform, which runs the Model 3 and the Model Y.

Tesla also has experience from the data it collects from millions of vehicles.

But investors and analysts said leapfrogging to high levels of automation that do not require driver supervision from its current FSD technology – which has come under increased regulatory and legal scrutiny with at least two fatal accidents – will not be easy.

"We think this is still several years away and numerous technological hurdles, safety tests, and regulatory approvals are still standing in the way," CFRA Research analyst Garrett Nelson said, highlighting "an increasing disconnect between the stock's lofty valuation and the reality that Tesla's earnings growth has hit a wall."