Elon Musk is a dreamer and he has proved that he possesses the power to think out of the box. His Tesla is into manufacturing electric cars that are meant to shelve fossil fuels and ward off global warming. His SpaceX has been an invaluable partner of NASA by virtue of the introduction of reusable rockets that economizes on launching spaceships. The billionaire tech mogul has now turned his attention to robot taxis and has identified a timeframe for 2020.

Daily Mail UK reports some thoughts of Elon Musk. While interacting with investors in California, he said Tesla would have autonomous robo-taxis on the road by 2020.

Once they become operational, Tesla would “eliminate the steering wheel and pedals from its vehicles by 2021.” Of course, in order to operate them, there has to be necessary approval. This might be a time-consuming process and come in phases but he is brimming with confidence.

Tesla's ride-share service

Elon Musk is an entrepreneur and is knowledgeable about the financial aspects of any business. He wants robo-taxis to be a part of a revenue earning system called Tesla Network. It would be a joint venture between Tesla and owners of Model S and Model 3s.

The owners will have the option of transforming their vehicles into shareable taxis for transporting riders autonomously to their destination.

Daily Mail UK adds that Elon Musk said Tesla has been developing the self-driving technology since 2016 with ride-share service in mind.

It would involve reclaiming leased Model 3s from the consumers on expiry of their contract and subsequently modifying them to cater to the needs of the ride-sharing service. Musk visualizes his Tesla Network as a combination between Uber and Airbnb. Tesla estimates its service would be cheaper at about 18 cents per mile, compared to $2 to $3 per mile that rivals normally charge.

It would be an attractive deal.

Robo-taxis are the future

According to the New York Post, the billionaire CEO of Tesla is a visionary. He is Elon Musk and he feels the robo-taxi service could launch by the end of 2020. He visualizes innumerable Tesla vehicles with self-driving technology on the road by the middle of next year and feels a national robot taxi service could emerge soon afterwards. A situation might come where Tesla owners could earn from the comforts of their home by sending their cars out into the field to transport commuters. Tesla has plans to upgrade its electric cars into self-driving vehicles by incorporating software updates that will allow robots to take over the controls.

It might appear to be far-fetched but not impossible because robots can perform if the program is foolproof. The best example is the Curiosity rover, which has been working for more than five years on Mars.
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