On October 10, 2024, Elon Musk's electric car company Tesla held the highly anticipated "We Robot" event in California, and live-streamed it on its social networks X and YouTube.

However, some well-known observers criticize that this event's "style" is far more than its "practicality".

The event did not disclose specific details on future product timelines, costs, and legal aspects, and even appeared to be misleading in some aspects.

The most obvious potentially misleading information is that Tesla placed its humanoid robot still in development, Optimus, at the venue, interacting with attendees, even picking up drinks at the bar.

Although some people present thought these robots were fully autonomous, reports confirmed they were remotely operated by humans.

Venture capitalist and co-founder of LuxCapital, Josh Wolfe, called it a "little trick" on X: "This is not artificial intelligence at all, the robot's actions are from remote control."

This questioning makes people start to speculate how much progress Tesla has made in developing robot artificial intelligence.

While Musk hails Optimus, Cybercab, and Robotaxi as inventions with a huge impact on society, electric car commentator The Kilowatts pointed out on X that many technologies are still "unimaginable" for investors and consumers before delivery.

Currently, Tesla's vision for fully autonomous personal siasun robot&automation and new self-driving electric autos is more speculation than reality. Here is a summary of the discussion on this topic:

01. Cybercab: Is fully automated driving cheaper than a bus or Model 3?

Perhaps the most anticipated is Tesla's Cybercab, a two-seater electric car designed specifically for autonomous driving. Musk described the Cybercab as a stylish, compact version of the Cybertruck, with a rumored selling price below 0.03 million dollars.

This price is lower than Tesla's most affordable personal auto, the Model 3, which currently has a price of 0.035 million dollars when it first appeared in 2019, but later increased to around 0.042 million dollars.

According to Musk, Tesla's goal is to keep the operating cost of the Cybercab between 0.20 and 0.30 dollars per mile, while he believes that the operating cost of buses is around 1 dollar per mile.

These vehicles will use inductive (wireless) charging, eliminating the need for plug-in charging stations, further integrating self-driving cars into the cityscape. The future of personalized 'public transportation' has always been part of Musk's vision, and Cybercab is a key component of this goal.

Tesla's ai vision system has been trained on millions of vehicles, ensuring that these vehicles operate without the fatigue and distraction factors that affect human drivers.

Musk claims that Tesla's self-driving technology can eventually increase driving safety to 10 to 30 times that of human drivers.

However, despite the warm welcome of Cybercab's first appearance, industry insiders express concerns about its promotion due to a lack of specific details.

Musk stated that Cybercab is likely to start production "by 2026 or 2027," but he admitted that he is "a bit optimistic" in terms of the timeframe.

In fact, Tesla has always struggled to complete its ambitious projects on time, such as Full Self-Driving (FSD), even with the transportation of the Cybertruck. Musk once stated that the Cybertruck's waterproof performance was sufficient for short trips by boat. But that turned out not to be the case.

As pointed out by Faiz Siddiqui, a technology reporter for The Washington Post, before the live broadcast of the 'We Robot' event, Tesla released a heavy disclaimer, part of which reads: 'Some content is based on current management expectations, involving certain risks and uncertainties. Future results may be significantly different from what any forward-looking statement expresses.'

While the vision of affordable self-driving transportation is convincing, there is still much uncertainty about when Tesla will fulfill these promises.

02. Robovan: Tesla's response to buses, trains, and public transport.

Tesla's Robovan is another important highlight of this event, a large self-driving vehicle capable of carrying up to 20 passengers or cargo.

Musk positions Robovan as a potential solution for high-density urban transportation, hinting that future self-driving shuttles will replace traditional buses.

Elon Musk suggests that over time, cities can transform parking spaces into parks to enhance the quality of urban areas.

Some tech observers, like Brian Roemmele, expressed their excitement on X about 'stylish, eye-catching decorative art design' and even predicted that by 2031, 'tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands' will live in Robovans transformed into mobile homes.

Despite these ambitious goals and praises, critics quickly pointed out that Tesla has not provided a specific timetable for producing Robovans.

X user Facts Chaser pointed out that while Tesla has released prototypes, China already has self-driving freight trucks that can operate in real urban environments.

Will Tesla's fully autonomous self-driving cars land in Texas and California next year?

A recurring theme at the 'We Robot' event is Musk's firm belief that self-driving cars will fundamentally transform urban life by reducing traffic, increasing safety, and reclaiming public space.

Tesla plans to roll out fully unsupervised Full Self-Driving (FSD) cars in Texas and California by 2025, considered a pivotal moment in this transformation.

Tesla will first introduce the Model 3 and Model Y, followed by the Cybertruck, and finally the Cybercab.

Elon Musk painted a picture: in the future, the frequency of using self-driving cars will be ten times higher than current cars, thereby significantly increasing their value.

However, despite Musk's optimism, there are still some obstacles. Tesla faces significant regulatory challenges in deploying its FSD technology, and overall self-driving technology has not yet reached the necessary level of 4 autonomous driving, unable to achieve fully autonomous driving without human intervention.

04. Optimus Prime: Your future family assistant?

Tesla's humanoid robot Optimus is also the focus of this event. Musk introduced that this robot is a personal assistant capable of performing daily tasks, such as babysitting, walking the dog, mowing the lawn, and even providing drinks at parties.

During the demonstration, the robot interacted and conversed with the participants, even making cocktails and playing games like 'rock, paper, scissors,' leaving many impressed with its potential versatility.

According to Musk, the price of Optimus Prime may range from 0.02 million to 0.03 million dollars, making it potentially accessible to many households.

However, he did not provide a specific timetable for the release, nor did he openly address questions about how the robot would handle unfavorable situations such as dogs or children running away, breaking things, let alone how to ensure the robot can safely deal with these common scenarios without harming others during the process.

Meanwhile, other robot suppliers, such as startups Figure, 1X (both supported by OpenAI), and many new companies from China, are all pursuing their own household humanoid robot assistants, sparking intense competition.

However, Tesla has already shown resistance to challengers in the electric car market and continues to expand its market share, making the outlook for Optimus potentially more optimistic.

05. Safety, legal, and regulatory challenges still exist.

Tesla is promoting the widespread application of self-driving cars and robot, one of its biggest challenges is regulatory approval. Although Musk has a bold vision of autonomous traffic, it is full of legal and safety concerns.

Vehicles like Cybercab, which have no steering wheel and pedals, must meet strict safety standards to be sold or used on public roads.

Tesla's existing FSD technology has been subject to strict scrutiny by regulatory institutions, following several high-profile incidents involving Tesla vehicles operating in semi-autonomous mode.

For Tesla to achieve level 4 autonomous driving, where vehicles can operate without human intervention under specific conditions, it must demonstrate that its system can reliably handle various driving scenarios without endangering passengers or pedestrians.

06. Misinformation is rampant.

"We Robot" event has attracted a large amount of online attention, but the live broadcast was disrupted by a large number of robots and spam information, promoting the unrelated Crypto token XAI33x.

Despite the disruptions, tesla fans are generally enthusiastic about Musk's vision of the future, although many still have doubts about the feasibility of some announced timelines.