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Elon Musk on Tuesday dismissed a hypothetical Tesla-Uber deal, saying there’s “no need” for Tesla to buy the ubiquitous rideshare app.
Musk told CNBC that he envisions a world where, instead of calling an Uber, you can call an autonomous Tesla to get you to your destination without a dedicated driver.
“We have millions of cars that will be able to operate autonomously,” Musk told CNBC’s David Faber. “And I should say that it’s a combination of a Tesla-owned fleet and also enabling Tesla owners to be able to add or subtract their car to the fleet, so that existing Tesla owners will be able to earn money by adding their car to the fleet for autonomous use.”
Musk’s proposed business model would allow Tesla drivers to rent out their cars for autonomous ride-hailing, “just like” one can rent out a spare bedroom through Airbnb.
Representatives for Tesla and Uber did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
After years of delays, Tesla plans to debut its much-anticipated robotaxi service in Austin next month, Business Insider previously reported. Musk confirmed the plans in the CNBC interview Tuesday.
“We’ll start with probably 10 for a week, then increase it to 20, 30, 40,” he said in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday. “It will probably be at 1,000 within a few months.”
Tesla has not yet unveiled the commercial version of its Full Self-Driving software, called FSD Unsupervised. This software will be used in its robotaxi fleet and does not require a driver behind the wheel like its personal vehicles.
When asked by Faber whether Tesla needed to make any improvements or changes to its technology or fleet in order to prepare to launch a large-scale robotaxi service, Musk demurred.
“I don’t think we’re missing anything,” Musk said. “Tesla has all the ingredients necessary to offer a vast self-driving fleet.”
Although Uber and Lyft have long bowed out of developing autonomous cars in-house, both companies plan to offer robotaxis on their platforms through partnerships with other self-driving-focused companies.
Uber, for example, already offers Alphabet’s Waymo on its app in Phoenix, Austin, and Atlanta.
Lyft said it has partnered with companies like May Mobility, Mobileye, and Japan’s Marubeni to begin offering autonomous vehicles as soon as summer of 2025.
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