Source: Sina Technology In 2023, 23-year-old Sam Altman (Sam Altman) spoke enthusiastically at the company's annual developer conference, praising the company's new app store for promoting his developed software (a friend positioning service called Loopt). "We think this is a new mobile era and we are excited to participate in it," Altman said. Today, 16 years later, Apple has invited this entrepreneur again - but the situation is different this time. Now the company needs his help, just as he needed Apple. Currently, the OpenAI startup run by Altman is at the forefront of the generative AI field. In order to catch up in this field, Apple has established a partnership with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into iPhone's operating system. Although the controversial Altman is unlikely to appear on stage at the press conference, this agreement will be the focus of next week's Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, indicating how much the power dynamics in Silicon Valley have changed in recent years. This agreement allows OpenAI to reach millions of Apple users, including those who may hesitate to use ChatGPT. For Apple, this collaboration brings the hottest technology of the artificial intelligence era - a chatbot with super powers that can be combined with its own services. Apple has been developing a series of artificial intelligence features, including features that run on its devices and other features that require cloud computing. Apple has also introduced artificial intelligence technology for the Siri digital assistant, but the company's self-developed chatbots have not yet met standards. Technology veteran Dag Kittlaus said that the collaboration with OpenAI is likely to be a "medium-term relationship" for Apple. Before Siri was acquired by Apple, he was co-founder and operator of Siri. "But one thing is certain, they will strive to cultivate their own capabilities in this regard. " On the morning of June 11th Beijing time, CEO Tim Cook will deliver a keynote speech at the Worldwide Developers Conference, which is considered the largest sales promotion of Apple in recent years. The company must convince consumers, developers and investors that Apple can thrive in the era of artificial intelligence. Due to the stagnation of Apple's existing businesses, five of its six quarters' revenue declined, and it faces greater pressure. In the field of artificial intelligence services, Apple once took the lead by releasing the Siri digital assistant in 2011, ahead of Amazon's Alexa and Google Assistant entering the market. But the company quickly fell behind its competitors, and the first appearance of ChatGPT in 2022 caused earth-shaking changes. In November 2022, OpenAI's chatbot inspired consumer imagination and prompted tech giants to compete to develop their own artificial intelligence services. Since then, Apple's main competitors have made progress. Gemini's chatbot is competing with ChatGPT for the dominant position in this emerging market. Microsoft is OpenAI's biggest supporter and has begun to integrate its AI-assisted Copilot into software. Amazon has also demonstrated an artificial intelligence-enhanced version of the Alexa voice assistant. In contrast, Apple has remained silent about its ambitions in artificial intelligence until now. Cook said last year that the company will act cautiously in new areas and will only add artificial intelligence technology on a "thoughtful basis." Recently, he believes that Apple will have an advantage in the field of artificial intelligence because the company can seamlessly integrate hardware, software and services together. Behind the scenes, Apple employees have been working hard to fulfill this promise. Before and after the release of ChatGPT, a small team in Apple's artificial intelligence and software engineering departments began using a framework called Ajax to develop ChatGPT's competitors. Apple software chief Craig Federighi urged managers to add as many artificial intelligence features as possible to the latest version of the iPhone and iPad operating system (internally referred to as "Crystal"). The service department led by Eddie Cue began to build the infrastructure of new data centers to support online artificial intelligence services. Employees also began researching how to apply artificial intelligence to Apple Music and the company's productivity applications.

On Thursday, October 10th local time, $Tesla (TSLA.US)$ The "Robotaxi Day" demonstration event will be held at Warner Bros. Studios in Los Angeles. It is expected that Tesla will announce its progress in self-driving cars and robotics technology. For Tesla CEO Elon Musk, he has a daunting task that day: to convince investors that Tesla is not just a car company.

This long-awaited event, originally scheduled for August, aims to further reinforce a concept that Tesla has been promoting: that it is first and foremost a technology company, and secondly a car company. At the end of September, Musk posted a message titled "We, Robot" on the social platform, X, stating that this will be "one for the history books". Due to high expectations for this event, when it was initially delayed, Tesla's stocks were significantly affected.

What will Tesla showcase? For Tesla, a major question is: it does not have a self-driving taxi system. Without such a system, what will Tesla showcase? If it only showcases a new model using Tesla's FSD, industry media and savvy investors will not consider this to be a historic event.

Vehicles without steering wheels

There will definitely be some type of vehicle without a steering wheel or pedals, with exquisite interior decoration, suitable for use as a taxi. It may be like an existing Tesla car without control devices, could be a smaller two-seater, or even have a luxurious workspace the size of a Cybertruck pickup truck.

But the problem is, this is hard to surprise people because there are already many concepts and actual cars designed for this purpose. Some 'leaked' models look very similar to the recently released Rimac 'Verne' siasun robot&automation taxi. We have seen $Alphabet-A (GOOGL.US)$ / $Alphabet-C (GOOG.US)$N/A.$Volvo AB Unsponsored ADR Class B (VLVLY.US)$and$Toyota Motor (TM.US)$ Mercedes and many other companies' small cars and concept cars. We also see larger vehicles with face-to-face seating, spacious interiors, and convenient entry. We hope Tesla can give us a surprise, although it may contain many elements we have already seen.

The vehicle may be able to drive on enclosed movie sets without supervision, allowing people to experience the future. For over 8 years, Musk has been predicting this future to be only about a year away. However, the results have greatly diminished the credibility of his predictions. Many companies have already conducted similar demonstrations (typically involving lidar). In 2009, Waymo/Google launched a robot taxi service based on golf carts at the Googleplex as their first project, although not shown to the public. At that time, Google was still 15 years away from expanding the project.

In addition to a vehicle without a steering wheel or pedals, there may be a ride-hailing app that could offer some nice new user experiences. Perhaps there will be some interesting new in-car experience demonstrations, as many companies are trying to create concepts for what people might do when riding in autonomous taxis, but the reality is likely to be just "staring at the phone," much like what people do in Uber and other forms of transportation.

Another 'one-year' prediction.

Musk predicts that Tesla cars will achieve fully autonomous driving within a year, which has led to ridicule in the industry.

An autonomous car is a car you can sleep in, risking your life, which is a very daunting task. Therefore, even though Tesla has not come close to achieving this goal, it has not stopped them from claiming so.

Therefore, Tesla may only carry out a planned course demonstration in this event, possibly on the Model 2 or concept car, and once again announce its goals.

Optimus humanoid robot

The official theme of Robotaxi Day is "We, Robot", indicating that we may also see an announcement of the Tesla humanoid robot project. Although past demos have not been impressive, the progress of humanoid robots is usually of interest.

While this may be a gimmick, Tesla could install modified versions of its FSD stack in their robots and have them drive any vehicle, albeit with a narrower view from its cameras than even FSD itself. The most challenging part is creating a robot that can get in and out of cars. However, in a staged course demo like in a movie theater, this might be safe enough, though not a realistic plan, it will certainly get people talking and feeling it falls short of expectations.

More useful would be robot charging. Tesla may showcase other new features for their robots, and people also enjoy watching humanoid robot demos.

Robotaxi Promotion

Tesla will certainly promote the advantages of self-driving taxis, as this is a tangible existence even if not currently achievable. This includes their safety, time-saving, and economic benefits, as well as the ability to redesign traffic and urban forms.

Musk has been saying recently that Tesla's real value will come from its robotics technology. There is a lot to unlock, so they will definitely talk about it. This is not surprising to industry professionals but unknown to most of the general public.

Model 2

Tesla may be moving in a completely different direction, launching a new low-cost electric vehicle, often referred to by fans as "Model 2".

It is rumored that the car is priced between $25,000 and $29,000, cheaper than the average low-end sedan. Despite reports that the project has been canceled, Musk has denied it.

This may cause a lot of excitement, causing people to forget that they were also promised an autonomous rental car.

Siasun Robot&Automation charging and wireless charging

One valuable use of autonomous driving technology is to manufacture automatic charging cars. This started with cars that could drive slowly to the charger nearby, possibly just crawling at night. For Tesla, it might be possible to do this even before Robotaxi. But it also requires the car to somehow connect to the charger when no one is around.

One of the methods is wireless charging, which Tesla has already stated they are developing. Wireless charging is expensive, with some losses, but it is very convenient and does not require manpower. If cars can be perfectly positioned, the losses may be lower. However, wireless charging is not ubiquitous and it will only be slow level 2 charging where the car has to stay for several hours.

Another option is self-plugging. The car itself can position itself correctly without the need for too many mechanical arms to plug in. A few years ago, Tesla demonstrated a 'snake' plug, but robot cars do not need such a thing. Alternatively, to be very cute, Tesla could try to make their humanoid robots able to plug into cars. This is an advantage as it can handle all charging stations with one robot, even allowing the robot to charge itself, which can be achieved at existing charging stations without much modification.

Automatic driving on highways

Mercedes is selling a car that can automatically drive on congested highways. They have just upgraded it to be able to drive at 60 miles per hour in the right lane with other vehicles. Once the speed reaches 70 miles per hour and can drive on open roads, this is actually a very valuable feature. Tesla FSD owners would greatly appreciate this feature if they could achieve it. Tesla can strive in this direction.

Tunnel company Boring

Tesla is unlikely to showcase this on a movie studio set, but many people wonder why Tesla driving in the Boring Company tunnel is still in manual mode. This is not Tesla's top priority, but hopefully relevant content will be seen at some point.

Maps or lidar

Tesla often claims that using detailed maps and lidar sensors is a bad idea.

But all other leading teams are using them, many of which already have operational robot taxis. Tesla may have to endure a lot before changing its mind.

High-risk turn of Tesla

Over the years, Musk has sent a strong signal to investors that he intends to develop Tesla into a company that is not just an electric auto manufacturer.

In 2019, at Tesla's then-headquarters in Palo Alto, Musk told shareholders that by 2020 he was confident in deploying 1 million self-driving taxis onto the roads with passengers on board. Although he missed this deadline, he has now propelled Tesla into other areas.

今年7月，马斯克在X平台上写道，“特斯拉明年将拥有真正有用的低产量人形机器人”供内部使用，并希望在2026年提高产量，将其出售给其他公司。2022年，特斯拉首次展示了“Optimus”人形机器人原型。

更广泛地说，马斯克可能将人形机器人和自动驾驶汽车视为特斯拉从AI中创造价值的一种方式。在OpenAI联合创始人、马斯克劲敌萨姆·奥特曼（Sam Altman）于2022年底发布ChatGPT后，AI这项大肆宣传的技术被牢牢地提上了硅谷的议程。

特斯拉可以通过机器人和AI抓住更广泛的机会，这不仅仅是马斯克的信念。特斯拉前AI总监Andrej Karpathy在最近一期的“No Priors”播客中表示，特斯拉不仅仅是一家简单的汽车公司，在他看来，汽车基本上就是机器人。

与此同时，投行Wedbush分析师Dan Ives在7月份也表示：“特斯拉AI的故事可能价值超过1 trillion美元，是最被低估的AI名称。”

然而，值得注意的是，特斯拉推出自动驾驶出租车的时机。对于特斯拉而言，当前正是一个艰难的时刻。

首先，特斯拉无法摆脱正在冲击整个电动汽车市场的销售压力。今年上半年，特斯拉的营收为46.8 billion美元，低于去年同期的48.3 billion美元。尽管特斯拉第三季度的交付量同比增长6.4%，但其价值仍比2021年11月达到的1.2 trillion美元峰值低6000多亿美元。

专注于电动汽车市场价格和供应链数据的行业公司Benchmark Mineral Intelligence的首席数据官Caspar Rawles表示，预计电动汽车增长将长期持续，但最近的宏观经济逆风导致了增速放缓。

另外，马斯克正在进入一个竞争对手领先的市场。谷歌母公司Alphabet旗下的Waymo去年与Uber建立了合作关系。7月，电动汽车制造商$BYD Company Limited (002594.SZ)$/ $BYD COMPANY (01211.HK)$ Also collaborated with other to provide autos with autonomous driving capabilities. In the Chinese market, $Uber Technologies (UBER.US)$ reached a partnership to offer vehicles with autonomous driving features to global customers. In the Chinese market, $Baidu (BIDU.US)$/ $BIDU-SW (09888.HK)$ A siasun robot&automation taxi fleet named "Apollo Go" has been deployed.

Ross Gerber, CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and a shareholder of tesla, said: "In theory, as long as there is not too much competition, robot taxis can be profitable. The problem is that the competition is fierce, and they are already on the road."

Finally, there are still doubts about how confident the regulatory authorities are in the safety of autonomous taxis. But in any case, Musk has a big story to tell on Thursday. Under the Hollywood lights, he hopes that investors can believe in all of this just like he does.

Editor / jayden