Tesla CEO Elon Musk has unveiled a new self-driving electric vehicle, a potential milestone after years of false promises and missed deadlines.

The robotaxi is a purpose-built autonomous vehicle without a steering wheel or pedals, meaning it needs approval from regulators before production. The design was futuristic, with doors that opened upward like butterfly wings and a small cabin that could only accommodate two passengers. There was no steering wheel or pedals.

Musk unveiled the Robotaxi prototype at Tesla’s “We, Robot” event at the Warner Bros. movie lot in Burbank, California, with plenty of closed streets for the demonstration. Tesla reportedly mapped the area in advance of the demonstration, although the company says it does not rely on high-resolution maps for its Full Self-Driving (FSD) driver assistance feature.

Musk is trying to steer Tesla away from its core business of making and selling electric vehicles and toward a company that produces robots and AI. Tesla’s market capitalization is almost equal to the entire value of the other global automakers combined. Much of the company’s stock price is based on Musk’s years-long promise to solve autonomy by releasing a truly revolutionary vehicle that can drive itself wherever it wants.

It is unclear whether Tesla’s robotaxi will be able to cope with this difficult task. Musk has a reputation for defying the odds, but AV experts have regularly questioned Tesla’s approach to technology, particularly given the company’s aggressive push for Level 2 advanced driver assistance systems such as Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (Supervised). .

Still, Tesla lags behind companies like Waymo and Cruise, both of which have logged millions of test miles on the road with their self-driving vehicles. To be sure, the rollout of robotaxis has been rocky, with numerous incidents of blocked vehicles, traffic jams, and even a handful of injuries. Federal safety regulators are investigating several key players to determine whether the technology powering these vehicles is safe or should be recalled.