Elon Musk just announced the death of driving

At the company's third-quarter earnings call on Wednesday, Musk said the current business model of cars driven by people is nearing an end and will be replaced by self-driving electric vehicles with next-generation technology, no steering wheels and no brake pedals.

“We have made it very clear that autonomous electric vehicles are the future,” Musk said.

He then compared piloted vehicles to horses as a means of transport and said that the trend towards autonomous vehicles will be obvious in retrospect.

“In the future, non-autonomous gasoline vehicles will be like riding a horse and using a flip phone. “It’s not that there aren’t horses,” he said. “There are some horses, but they are unusual. They are niche.”

Musk's comments come after Tesla announced its autonomous robot taxi, the Cybercab, as well as a self-driving Robovan for larger groups earlier this month. Some analysts criticized the fact that the supposedly autonomous vehicles drove on a controlled, closed course when they were unveiled. But Musk said Wednesday that the robotaxi is already being tested by employees on the streets of San Francisco.

Musk added during the call that he believes auto companies that don't focus on autonomous vehicles will pay the price in the future.

“Many car companies or most car companies have not internalized this, which is surprising because we have been shouting this from the rooftops for so long, and it will work to their detriment in the future,” he said.

Musk promised that in the future all Tesla vehicles will be autonomous. Of the 7 million Tesla vehicles on the road, a “vast majority” are capable of driving autonomously. Musk has previously said that with an upgrade to Tesla's FSD (Full Self-Driving) software, customers will “soon” be able to look forward to a full year of driving without ever having to touch the steering wheel.

He also took aim at Waymo, which analysts have cited as an example of self-driving technology already on the roads following Tesla's robotaxi announcement.

“We are currently producing around 35,000 autonomous vehicles per week. For example, compare that to Waymo's entire fleet costing less than -[they] We have less than 1,000 cars,” Musk said.

During the call, analysts also asked about the long-promised $25,000 electric vehicle that Tesla reportedly scrapped earlier this year. While Tesla said in its earnings report that it would launch “cheaper models” in the first half of next year, Musk made it clear that a low-cost electric vehicle without autonomous capabilities would be a step backwards.

“I think having a regular $25,000 model is pointless,” he said. “It would be silly. It will be completely contrary to what we believe.”