Tesla Has Robotaxi Explaining to Do Before Launch: Hyperdrive

Thanks for reading Hyperdrive, Bloomberg’s newsletter on the future of the auto world.

Questions in Need of Clearing Up

Six years ago this month, Tesla raised billions of dollars off the back of Elon Musk telling Wall Street that the company was on the cusp of turning its customers’ cars into robotaxis.

“We expect to have the first operating robotaxis next year,” Musk said in April 2019. “With no one in them, next year.”

The extent to which Musk turned out to have been wrong is well documented — Teslas did not, in fact, have the hardware necessary to drive themselves then, and ...