Tesla's Autonomous Taxi Launches August 8, Morgan Stanley: Tesla Will Dominate The Market

JAKARTA - Competition in autonomous car development is on the rise, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has just confirmed that the automaker will launch a robotaxi or Tesla autonomous taxi on August 8 this year.

Morgan Stanley as an investment and financial services company told investors that the launch could determine the trend for 2030 and beyond. Morgan Stanley believes that Tesla has a lot of attributes that can make him a tough player in the race towards autonomous cars.

"We first started writing about investment considerations from Tesla's potential robotaxi business since we started modeling 'Tesla Mobility' in 2015 when Tesla's market cap only reached 30 billion dollars," wrote Adam Jonas, principal analyst for Morgan Stanley, reported by Teslarati, April 10.

"We (disrupt) expect the company to officially launch a high-tech ride-sharing service by 2018. Nearly a decade later, we are still waiting. August 8 will offer some important clues," he added.

Tesla is considered to have fended off its pessimistic tone over the past year, mainly as its shares have been hit hard by the growing number of competitors and the decline in market share in key markets such as China.

The automaker also stated that its growth this year will be underdeveloped due to the development of the next-generation platform, which includes Robotaxi and cheap electric vehicles for US$25,000 or the equivalent of nearly Rp400 million.

Since then, Tesla has reported less than expected shipping and production figures for the first quarter of this year and fended off false reports that it had canceled US$25,000 vehicles in China.