Billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said that the company's most important products this year and next will not be cars.

He continued: Rather, it will be software that will help to drive it autonomously, and robots that look like humans.

"It's going to be a huge shock to me if we don't make fully autonomous driving safer than human driving this year," added Musk, who has built his reputation by challenging business skeptics about electric cars and missiles.

He also predicted that fully autonomous driving would become "the most important source of profitability for Tesla".

But such bold promises from the world's most famous billionaire face major challenges, including technical and regulatory hurdles.

Tesla and other self-driving technology companies have failed for years to achieve their goals of developing driverless software.

Some Tesla drivers are buying up to $12,000 worth of self-driving software, based on expectations that their cars will soon achieve full autonomy.

About 60,000 Tesla drivers are also testing the latest self-driving software, a process of scale that no other companies in the same field can match.

“(Autonomous driving) is going to be financially feasible,” Musk said, noting that automated taxis would boost the utility of the car by 5 times as owners would be able to send it to run when they don't need it.

But even if Tesla gets access to the technology, it will have to come under more stringent regulatory scrutiny before deploying fleets of self-driving taxis to the streets.

US auto safety regulators have already opened an investigation into the safety of the driver assistance system developed by Tesla, after accidents in which cars collided with parked emergency services vehicles.

Musk also said engineers are working on a humanoid robot called Optimus next year.

He added: It can solve the problem of labor shortage around the world.