Elon Musk’s net worth plummeted by $15billion after he announced the Tesla Cybercab last week.
Tesla unveiled its long-awaited robotaxi at a Hollywood studio Thursday night, though fans of the electric vehicle maker will have to wait until at least 2026 before they are available.
CEO Elon Musk pulled up to a stage at the Warner Bros. studio lot in one of the company’s “Cybercabs,” telling the crowd that the sleek, AI-powered vehicles don’t have steering wheels or pedals.
He also expressed confidence in the progress the company has made on autonomous driving technology that makes it possible for vehicles to drive without human intervention.
But the long-anticipated prototypes for its Cybercab and Robovan, failed to impress many investors and Wall Street analysts.
The company’s stock fell by more than nine percent the next day. Musk who holds 13% of the company’s stock lost billions, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
It comes as the director of the 2004 action thriller I, Robot, Alex Proyas, has accused Tesla CEO Elon Musk of borrowing his ideas for the company’s latest products.
During the recent We, Robot event, Musk unveiled a series of new products including an autonomous taxi named Cybercab, a self-driving van dubbed Robovan, and a humanoid robot capable of performing household tasks.
However, fans on Musk’s social media platform, X (formerly known as Twitter), were quick to draw parallels between these new offerings and the futuristic technology depicted in Will Smith’s I, Robot.
The similarities between the real and fictional robots, vans, and cars are striking, although Musk’s robots lack the realistic faces seen in the film.
Proyas took to X to voice his thoughts on the matter, posting: “Hey Elon, Can I have my designs back please? alongside side-by-side comparisons of his film’s autonomous police force and Tesla’s optimus bot, the transport in the film and the robovan, and Del Spooner’s (Will Smith) futuristic car and the cybercab.
I, Robot, set in Chicago in 2035, is based on Isaac Asimov’s 1950 collection of short stories.