Elon Musk Denies Rumors Of Uber Co-Founder Travis Kalanick Joining Tesla To Lead Its Robotaxi Efforts

Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk on Sunday denied rumors of hiring Uber Technologies co-founder Travis Kalanick to advise or head the company’s robotaxi division.

What Happened: “False,” Musk said about the rumors on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

“All that matters is improving Tesla self-driving AI such that miles between interventions is >> human,” Musk said in another post about having pulled Kalanick into the Tesla universe.

The rumors of Kalanick joining Tesla kicked off after Musk started following the Uber co-founder on X last week despite the latter not posting anything since 2019. Some speculated that Kalanick might be roped into Tesla to spearhead its robotaxi division as the company gears to unveil its robotaxi product on Aug. 8.

Kalanick left his role as Uber CEO in 2017 and left its Board of Directors in 2019. The former Uber CEO is now CEO of City Storage Systems and runs the 10100 Fund.

Why It Matters: During Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting in June, Musk said that Tesla’s robotaxi fleet will operate like a combination of Airbnb and Uber with Tesla owning a part of the fleet and Tesla owners being able to let their private vehicles join and exit the fleet at will.

The robotaxi unveil is part of Musk’s efforts to turn Tesla from an automaker to an AI, robotics, and sustainable energy company and boost its value.

"While autonomous vehicle is a $5-$7 trillion market cap situation, Optimus is a $25 trillion market cap situation," Musk said last month.

He also said in April that dedicating to autonomous driving is a "blindly obvious move" for Tesla.

"Even if I got kidnapped by aliens tomorrow, Tesla will solve autonomy, maybe a little slower, but it would solve autonomy for vehicles at least," Musk said at the company’s first-quarter earnings call. "If somebody doesn't believe Tesla is going to solve autonomy, I think they should not be an investor in the company."

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