--The dream of launching 20 million vehicles has encountered the regulation of unmanned vehicles.

Just when Robotaxi has become a global net red concept, as a pioneer of fully autonomous driving technology, Tesla has to face the difficult production of its Robotaxi products.

On July 23rd, Tesla's second quarter earnings call attracted the attention of Wall Street and even the global financial market as usual. But, the media reported that the Tesla Robotaxi originally scheduled for release on August 8 will be postponed to October.

Why the delay?

On the call, Tesla management admitted that it would postpone the Tesla Robotaxi release date to October 10 - but at the same time, Tesla executives, including Elon Musk, still appeared to be hiding the reasons for the postponement of the release date as well as questions about the delay in the release of the Robotaxi.

August 8 is the birthday of Musk's twin daughters - a date that Musk himself confirmed as the reason for choosing to release the Tesla Robotaxi. So what prompted Musk to give up on the “lucky day” to launch Robotaxi?

Regulatory ChallengesSince Tesla officially announced the Robotaxi in April, the design of the car has been the focus of public attention.

In May, Tesla officially released a teaser video for the Robotaxi. While the video provided some interesting details - such as a front fascia design similar to the Tesla pickup Cybertruck, as well as integrated seats and displays inside the car.

But what remains most crucial is the core idea of designing the entire Tesla Robotaxi without pedals or steering wheel, and completely controlled by Autopilot.

Since then, a series of concept drawings of the Tesla Robotaxi have appeared frequently on social media - but all of them have been proved to be not officially released by Tesla.

On the call, Tesla first confirmed the delay in the Robotaxi release, and announced that the future Robotaxi will be produced in the U.S. factory in Texas.

But the investors at the conference were more concerned that even if the Tesla Robotaxi is released, its steering wheel-less and pedal-less design will make it difficult to be fully roadworthy in the United States.

“We think one of the barriers to the Robotaxi's release is whether or not regulators approve it. Can management talk about what laws and regulations we should focus on? For example, Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS)” questioned one Barclays analyst, ”Will Tesla take into account the differences between the different continents [in the U.S.] and push for Robotaxi to hit the ground running, state by state?”

Musk's response

And Musk's response continues to have its grandiose character.

“We're taking more of a generic program. If we were to tailor it to the local area, it would get very complicated and the program would be very fragile.” Musk said, “Therefore, we want to take a universal solution that applies to every country, every region of the globe, and is even suitable for a different planet.” Musk said.

Musk's response to questions about compliance with federal motor vehicle safety standards, on the other hand, was poignant.

“As long as we can prove it's safe, or at least far safer than humans, then regulators will support it.” Musk said, “If we can provide billions of miles of test data that proves that FSDs are safer than human drivers in unsupervised situations in the future, then no regulator is going to stop this technology.”

20 Million Robotaxi to be Launched

Right after Musk made these grandiose narratives, there were still investors who cited Cruise, the main body of GM's self-driving business, as calling the pedal-less Robotaxi into question.

As recently as July 23, GM said it would focus its driverless car development on the next-generation Chevrolet Bolt - a more traditional new energy vehicle with various types of manual driving modules - and that the steering wheel-less version of the Origin, which was originally planned, would be postponed indefinitely.

Earlier, GM in 2022 to the U.S. had submitted a petition to the U.S. Department of Motor Vehicles, requesting that the company be allowed to deploy 2,500 pedal-less, steering wheel-less and mirror-less Origin vehicles per year. However, so far the authorities have not responded to the petition.

Tough Competition

However, in Musk's opinion, GM and Cruise just don't have the technology to do it - and says that if it were up to Tesla, they'd definitely be able to do it.

There are reports that the only driverless vehicle on the road currently approved by the FMVSS is the Nuro, but the company has only deployed driverless vans so far.

On the other hand, Amazon's Zoox has also been more aggressive in advancing Robotaxi, with its driverless modular vehicle having been tested in February last year on the company's campus internal road with a passenger, and formally driven on the Las Vegas highway in June last year.

But it was this kind of test that was noticed by the U.S. vehicle regulator, who launched an investigation. Zoox's Robotaxi has not been rumored to be tested on the road since then.

The largest Robotaxi operator in the U.S. is currently Waymo - a company that operates a Robotaxi with a traditional vehicle architecture.

Wait and see

So could the Tesla Robotaxi, which launches on October 10th, be the forerunner of the Robotaxi in the U.S. without a manual driving system? At least Musk remains convinced.

“We're going to build a fleet of about 7 million self-driving cars soon. In a few years, that number could be more than 10 or even 20 million,” Musk said, making his usual bold statement.

He also said that not only will Tesla Robotaxi be operated through self-owned vehicles, but consumers will also be able to buy a Tesla Robotaxi and join an operating fleet at will to generate revenue - just like listing their house on Audemars Piguet.