Good morning! It’s Thursday, August 8, 2024, and this is The Morning Shift , your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, in one place. Here are the important stories you need to know. 1st Gear: Happy Telsa Robotaxi Release Day! In a parallel universe, today is Tesla Robotaxi release day .
Unfortunately for the automaker’s stans, that is not the world we live in. Back in April, CEO Elon Musk said the long-awaited Tesla Robotaxi would be officially unveiled today, August 8. Welp, that’s not happening, and that announcement from Musk is looking more and more like a way to get the automaker’s stock out of a rut.
Recently, Musk changed the date to October 10 , saying he wanted to make some changes to the vehicle before it was unveiled. He apparently ordered the design alterations last month, and his team working on it needed more time to build additional prototypes. From Bloomberg : The delay was a big letdown because the event had served as a shiny object to distract from Tesla’s declining sales.
The diversionary tactic was wildly successful — over an 11-week stretch beginning in April, Tesla added $386 billion of market capitalization. Over the past month, Tesla has coughed up much of those gains. The slight delay in timing of the robotaxi unveiling didn’t help, but the more important issue is the substance of the eventual event.
Recent developments suggest it will be nothing more than a promotional spectacle, and that Tesla is endange.