Tesla chief executive Elon Musk says the car manufacturer’s upcoming entry-level electric model will be used predominantly in autonomous driving mode when it hits the market.
After first being announced by Musk in 2020, Tesla has been slowly developing its forthcoming EV with a targeted price tag of around $25,000. While many had expected Tesla to announce a raft of details about the car during its recent Investor Day, it sadly didn’t do so. However, Musk did recently mention the car during an interview at the Morgan Stanley Conference.
“There is a clear path to making a vehicle, a smaller vehicle, that is roughly half the production cost of our Model 3,” he said. “That vehicle will be used almost entirely in autonomous mode. The thing that is gigantic for Tesla is autonomy. And people that have used the Tesla Full-Self Driving and have seen how rapidly the Full-Self Driving capabilities has been evolving, it should be obvious that that is the most profound thing [for the carmaker].”
Read: This Is Everything We Know About The $25,000 Tesla Model 2
Musk then went on to add that passenger cars now are typically only used for 10-12 hours per week and said that if vehicles were completely autonomous, they will likely be used for 50-60 hours per week.
“That’s a 5x in the value of a car and it costs the same to make the car,” Musk added. “At that point, you basically have software margins in a hardware product.”
When speaking about the Model 2 and the company’s autonomous driving plans, Musk was likely referring to the company’s long-promised ‘robotaxi’ service where Tesla owners will be able to rent out their vehicles when they don’t need them. Given that the Model 2 will be affordable and could establish itself as Tesla’s best-selling model, it’s safe to assume that many owners will advertise their cars on the robotaxi service.
Of course, Elon Musk has made a number of audacious claims about Tesla’s self-driving capabilities over the years, so we suggest taking his statement with a grain of salt.
The opening photo is a speculative Carscoops rendering of a future Tesla Model 2
