By Annie Palmer For Dailymail.com
Published: 23:38 BST, 22 April 2019 | Updated: 23:38 BST, 22 April 2019
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Elon Musk said he's 'very confident' that Tesla will have autonomous robo-taxis on the road as soon as next year.
The billionaire tech mogul showed off a Tesla ride-sharing app at the company's Autonomy Day with investors at its Palo Alto, California headquarters on Monday.
Not long after Tesla's robo-taxis are operational, Musk also predicts the firm will eliminate the steering wheel and pedals from its vehicles by 2021.
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Elon Musk said he's 'very confident' that Tesla will have autonomous robo-taxis on the road as soon as next year. Pictured is a mock up of Tesla's ride-sharing app, shown at Autonomy Day
'I feel very confident predicting autonomous robo-taxis for Tesla next year,' Musk said on stage.
However, he cautioned, that the cars won't be 'in all jurisdictions, because we won't have regulatory approval everywhere, but I am confident we will have at least regulatory approval somewhere, literally next year.'
Tesla's ride-share service, called Tesla Network, would let users transform their Model S and Model 3s into shareable taxis that transport riders autonomously to their destination.
'You'll be able to add or subtract your car to the fleet from your phone,' Musk said.
'You could have your car operate 1/3 of the week or longer. The fundamental utility of your vehicle will increase by a factor of 5.'
Musk said Tesla began developing full self-driving technology in 2016 with the idea of launching a ride-share service.
It would operate by reclaiming leased Model 3s from consumers once their contract expires, then re-purposing the vehicles for the ride-sharing service.
In doing so, Tesla
