Elon Musk readies Robotaxi he is betting Tesla’s future on

Elon Musk went all-in to get robotaxis onto roads, sacrificing a widely anticipated cheaper car, gutting teams focused on other projects and downplaying Tesla Inc.’s sales slowdown.
So when Musk finally unveils autonomous taxi prototypes late Thursday, the chief executive officer will have a lot to prove. He’s promised nothing short of a new era for transportation, in which Teslas with empty driver seats zip around with paying passengers, making money for their owners while they’re asleep or at work.
For all of Musk’s years of premature predictions that autonomous Teslas were just around the corner, investors have bid up the company’s shares in recent months in anticipation of a product that’s actually ready, or at least close to it. Meeting those expectations will require credible plans to leapfrog the likes of Alphabet Inc.-backed Waymo, which leads a field of companies already offering driverless rides.
“If they just show something that doesn’t actually demonstrate the technology, a prototype of a vehicle that doesn’t move, that’s going to go over like a lead balloon,” said Gene Munster, managing partner of growth-investment firm Deepwater Asset Management.
The event Tesla has dubbed “We, Robot” — a likely nod to Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot collection of short science-fiction stories — is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. California time at Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.’s movie studio near Los Angeles. Wall Street analysts and many of Tesla’s most prominent influencers are among those invited to attend.
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