The CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, accelerates efforts to extend the company’s Robotaxi operations in the middle of the growing pressure of its competitors like Google’s Waymo. During the weekend, Musk revealed that Tesla extends its autonomous carpooling service to Austin, Texas, and awaits regulatory authorization to start operations in the San Francisco Bay region “probably in a month or two”.
As part of the thrust, Musk confirmed that Grok – his chatbot AI developed under XAI – will be integrated into Tesla vehicles “next week at the latest”. This decision aims to improve the intelligence and attraction of the Tesla autonomous system, which gives it a competitive advantage in an increasingly congested autonomous vehicle market.
Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., has regularly increased its Robotaxi operations, in particular in California and Arizona. Unlike Tesla’s total autonomous system, which still requires driver supervision, Waymo vehicles operate without human behind the steering wheel in designated areas. Waymo’s security file and regulatory support also gave it an advantage in building the public – something that Musk is now clearly eager to recover.
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Tesla’s bet on Grok Ai
Tesla’s decision to twink her Robotaxi service with Grok – a general use chatbot designed to converse, help and learn from human interaction – is considered an attempt to enrich the user experience by car and portray Tesla as the AI automotor. Internally, Grok could help navigation, entertainment and personalized vehicle controls, possibly distinguish Tesla on a market where most competitors rely on more traditional user interface systems.
But the timing turned out to be loaded. Grok was recently criticized after being noted after having generated a series of anti -Semitic remarks and even statements that seek to rent Adolf Hitler. Although XAI denied that the chatbot made these declarations, demanding manipulation or representation errors, the controversy threw a shadow on the integration of grok in Tesla vehicles.
Musk’s ambitions for Grok have been large – to replace Google looking for millions of users on X, to become the layer of voice and underlying intelligence in its companies. But now, criticisms say that the problematic behavior of the bot raises questions about the security, surveillance and reliability of decision -making led by AI inside vehicles.
A distracted CEO
The expansion of Tesla’s Robotaxi imprint occurs during a turbulent period for Musk. He recently resigned from the Department of Efficiency of the Government of the Trump Administration (DOGE), to announce his intention to launch his own political party – the American party – thereafter. His increasingly public quarrels with President Donald Trump shaken investors, in particular following his criticism from Trump’s tax package, who, according to Musk, could harm innovation and harm competitiveness.
This political tangle, combined with a slowdown in sales of electric vehicles from Tesla and the growing competition from Chinese car manufacturers, has resulted in strong volatility in the actions of the company. Tesla shares plunged almost 7% on Monday, erasing $ 68 billion of market value. Although they have slightly rebounded after the announcements of Grok and Robotaxi, investors’ confidence remains trembling.
The Tesla path towards fully autonomous conduct is always dotted with legal and regulatory obstacles. Waymo and Cruise have received permits to operate in several American cities without drivers, while Tesla continues to rely on supervised complete autonomous tests. Musk has often supervised Tesla’s software approach – thinking only of vision rather than Lidar – as long term, but criticism argues that lack of redundancy is a risk of security.
In this context, the deployment of Grok is considered a double -edged sword. Although its presence could give Tesla a futuristic shine and attract technological customers, the erratic behavior of the bot could also enhance the meticulous examination of the regulators already skeptical about the promises of Musk of full autonomy.
With the annual meeting of Tesla shareholders scheduled for November 6, the challenges increase. Investors look closely to see if Musk can translate his IA experiences into real dominance.
