Musk entices the stock market with visions after mediocre quarterly figures.

Self-driving taxis and robots: After moderate quarterly figures, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has inundated investors with visions of the future. Among other things, he announced the launch of the electric car company's first robotaxi service in the US city of Austin for June - and by the end of next year in many countries around the world.

Musk has long promised that all Teslas will drive autonomously. He had already announced in 2018 that a Tesla would drive driverless from one US coast to the other. This still hasn't happened. So far, even the advanced version of Tesla's "Autopilot" system, with the nickname "Full Self-Driving" (FSD, fully self-driving), requires human supervision. Meanwhile, Google's sister company Waymo is offering robotaxi services without a human driver in several US cities.

Dispute Over the Right Technology

Moreover, the question remains as to how reliable Tesla's autonomous driving technology is. Unlike a large part of the industry, Musk insists that self-driving cars only need cameras and do not require the more expensive laser radars, which companies like Waymo rely on. 

If this works, Tesla would have an enormous cost advantage and could indeed make several million vehicles self-driving through software updates. However, experts fear compromises in safety, as the laser radars, also known as Lidar, scan the surroundings of the vehicles in three dimensions, something that cameras cannot achieve.

Skepticism in the Industry

Other manufacturers categorically refuse to send autonomous cars on the road using only cameras.

BMW's head of development Frank Weber recently stated: "For us, it is completely clear that this is not possible."

He argued at the CES tech fair that a camera, for instance, would not recognize a pallet lying on the road in front of the car. The CEO of electric car manufacturer Polestar, Michael Lohscheller, also recently stated that they are sticking to Lidar in their vehicles. Musk, on the other hand, reinforced his position on Wednesday:

"People drive without shooting laser beams out of their eyes."

He argued that laser radars are not the right technology for road traffic. And Tesla maintains that the production of robotaxis without steering wheels and pedals is set to begin next year.

Allegedly Too Many Rules in Europe

Regarding the timeline for Europe, Musk criticized that there are too many rules. That is why people joke that America develops innovations and Europe regulates, he said. As a result, the approval of "Full Self-Driving" in Europe will not advance to the next stage until May, "even though it works really well."

However, in the current version of the "self-driving" system in the USA, drivers reportedly have to intervene frequently. Meanwhile, Waymo announced just a few hours before Tesla's conference call that it will send test vehicles to ten more US cities.

Robots for 20,000 Dollars

Musk also raved once again about Tesla's humanoid robots named Optimus. They have precisely functioning mechanical hands, allowing them to thread sewing yarn into a needle or play the piano, he said. And with a production rate of one million robots annually, manufacturing costs would be pushed below 20,000 dollars.

Musk bases the outlook that Tesla could be by far the most valuable company in the world on autonomy and robots. Investors responded positively: The stock rose by four percent in after-hours trading.