Tesla says one million robotaxis will be on roads next year

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced that it will launch a self-driving fleet of taxis in 2020.

Insisting that the US car-maker would have "over a million robotaxis" on the road next year, Musk made the revelations during an event at Tesla's headquarters in Palo Alto, California.

During the presentation to investors and analysts, Musk also revealed Tesla's next-generation autonomous technology and announced how owners would soon be able to make money out of their existing car by adding it to a fleet of taxis that would be capable of operating without drivers.

"I feel very confident predicting autonomous robotaxis for Tesla next year," Musk boldly announced during the event, which was broadcast online.

Going further, Musk confirmed to analysts that within just two years Tesla would be producing vehicles without pedals or steering wheels.

"The probability of the steering wheel being removed in future is 100 per cent," with the Tesla chief exec adding: "Consumers will demand in the future that people are not allowed to drive these two-tonne death machines."

Helping achieve its aim of rapidly rolling out an army of robotaxis is the app that allows owners to lend their vehicles to the service when they're not using them.

According to Tesla, the pure-electric car-maker will take between 25-30 per cent of the profit generated from each robotaxi but, over a predicted 11-year service life, the legal owner would still produce a gross profit of $US30,000 ($A42,000) per year, at a cost of 18 US cents (A25c) per mile.

In the first roll-out phase of the service Tesla says it will deploy a fleet of Model 3s that have been bought back from customers who had leased them.

Tesla says that to rapidly build up the fleet of Model 3 robotaxis, current customers who lease their Model 3 will no longer be offered the option to buy 'their' car at the end of the lease period.

As well as the fleet of robotaxis, Musk also announced that Tesla has developed an all-new microchip designed specifically to improve autonomous driving.

Described as "objectively the best chip in the world", the new 'Full Self-Driving' computer is said to have already been installed on all Model S and Model X models built since March 20 and all Model 3 sedans manufactured from around April 12.

The new chip, made by Samsung in Texas, is key to Tesla achieving fully autonomous driving and is claimed to be capable of processing seven times as much information as the previous Nvidia Xavier computer.

During his speech, Musk hit out at rival car-makers relying on Lidar systems to help achieve autonomous driving.

"Lidar is a fools' errand. And anyone relying on Lidar is doomed," Musk said. "It's expensive and unnecessary and once you solved vision it's worthless."

Tesla hasn't specified when or where its fleet of robotaxis will be introduced, with Musk only announcing its driverless service will begin in 'select cities'.

Neither has there been any indication given on how Tesla will overcome the many regulatory issues that both the US and local state government will likely impose on driverless cars.

Other analysts are also wary that Tesla's 'Full Self-Driving' technology is still some way off industry standards, while others doubt claims the Model 3 will be able to handle all driving conditions without the need of human intervention.

The latest startling claim by Tesla that it is potentially years ahead of competition like Waymo and Uber comes just days before the US car-maker is expected to announce a quarterly loss and fewer deliveries of its Model 3 sedan than forecast.

It's not known if Tesla needs to seek new financing to survive.