Elon Musk says Tesla will have 1 million autonomous taxis on the road by next year

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Monday that his company will have 1 million autonomous taxis on the road by 2020.

“I feel very confident predicting 1 million autonomous robo-taxis for Tesla next year. Not in all jurisdictions because we won’t have regulatory approval everywhere, but I’m confident we will have regulatory approval at least somewhere, literally next year,” Musk told investors and Wall Street analysts, according to Business Insider.

{mosads}Musk added that he envisions the taxis will operate “like a combination of the Uber and the Airbnb model.”

The taxis would run on the “Tesla network,” and any owner can add their car, Musk added. Tesla, which is one of several carmakers working on driverless vehicles, would keep a percentage of the revenue.

“So if you own the car, you can add or subtract it to the Tesla network and Tesla would take 15 or 20 percent of the revenue. In places where there aren’t enough people sharing their cars we would just have dedicated Tesla vehicles,” Musk said, according to Business Insider.

Some groups, however, urged caution against Musk’s claims.

David Friedman, vice president of advocacy for Consumer Reports, said in a statement Tuesday that Tesla’s claims about “driving automation systems and safety are not backed up by the data.”

“We’ve heard promises of self-driving vehicles being just around the corner from Tesla before. Claims about the company’s driving automation systems and safety are not backed up by the data, and it seems today’s presentations had more to do with investors than consumers’ safety,” Friedman said.