Elon Musk: Car prices will 'rise significantly' after Tesla launches robotaxi service

The company believes its vehicles will be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars over their useful lifetime.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has warned that the company's car pricing will potentially multiply after the company launches its ride-hailing service.

The executive recently claimed Tesla's vehicles will be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars over their useful life when operated as part of a fully autonomous robotaxi fleet. The presentation did not answer the obvious question at the time: why would Tesla sell any cars to consumers if they become worth so much more for a taxi service?

Musk yesterday confirmed the likely price increase when asked on Twitter if consumers have limited time left to buy a Tesla car before prices "go up severalfold to balance supply and demand" once the company solves full self-driving.

"To be clear, consumers will still be able to buy a Tesla, but the clearing price will rise significantly, as a fully autonomous car that can function as a robotaxi is several times more valuable than a non-autonomous car," he added in a later post.

The company is still working to make full self-driving a reality. In a separate Twitter thread, Musk said that intersections with complex traffic lights and shopping mall parking lots are the two biggest software challenges.

"Developer branch already mostly works in these scenarios, but massive effort required to get to 99.9999% safety," he said.