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Elon Musk confirmed on Monday that Tesla\u2019s robotaxi event scheduled for August has been delayed to October. The CEO replied<\/a> on X (the former Twitter, which he owns<\/a>) to a user\u2019s post that he \u201crequested what I think is an important design change to the front, and extra time allows us to show off a few other things.\u201d<\/p>\n Musk\u2019s X post appears to echo what Bloomberg<\/em> reported last week. The publication claimed on July 11 that delaying the event would give Tesla more time to build additional prototypes<\/a>. It added that the company had communicated the delay internally and that the design team was told to \u201crework certain elements of the car,\u201d which sounds like Musk\u2019s order to change the front design.<\/p>\n The CEO said in early April that the company would unveil the Tesla Robotaxi on August 8<\/a>. The teaser came on the same day Reuters<\/em> reported<\/a> that Tesla was pulling the plug on a planned $25,000 budget model<\/a> (often casually referred to externally as the Model 2<\/a>) in favor of a full-court push for robotaxis. Musk claimed Reuters<\/em> was \u201clying\u201d without listing any specific points of contention.<\/p>\n A few weeks later, Tesla cut \u201cmore than 10 percent\u201d<\/a> of the company\u2019s over 140,000 personnel (at the time). Two weeks after word of the layoffs broke, the EV maker let go of two senior executives<\/a> as Musk warned staff that \u201cwe need to be absolutely hard core about headcount and cost reduction.\u201d In what sounded like a threat, he added, \u201cWhile some on exec staff are taking this seriously, most are not yet doing so.\u201d<\/p>\n Tesla delivered nearly seven percent fewer vehicles in the first half of 2024 and produced nearly 15 percent fewer<\/a> in the second quarter than in the same period in 2023.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n