tesla CEO Elon Musk said Thursday that the company will have an “extensive” network of driverless robotaxis in the United States by the end of 2026.
“Tesla is rolling out robotaxi services in several cities, and by the end of this year it will be very widespread in the United States,” he said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
After years of delaying its promise of fully self-driving cars, Tesla’s robotaxis finally began driving in Austin in June with a human safety observer on board. The company later launched a human-driven rideshare service in San Francisco.
The company does not have permission to test or drive the vehicle on public roads without a human driving it.
In 2019, Musk told investors he was “very confident” the company could launch a vehicle by 2020.
Tesla operates in the increasingly competitive self-driving car market. alphabet-Supports Waymo. AmazonWaymo ended the year in five U.S. markets, launching in Miami on Thursday.
It was the first time in several years that Musk attended an annual meeting of world leaders. The tech billionaire previously mocked the forum on social media, calling it “boring AF.”
In a conversation with him, black rock Musk CEO Larry Fink also said Tesla will sell the Optimus robot to the public by the end of 2027.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen in 10 years, but if you look at the rate of progress in AI, we might have AI that’s smarter than humans by the end of this year. I think it’ll be next year at the latest,” Musk said.
WATCH: The year robotaxis went mainstream, with Waymo leading the way
CNBC’s Lora Kolodny also contributed to this article.
