Comment by rtkwe
3 years ago
I think that was part of why FSD was such a core pitch from the beginning. IF Tesla had managed to crack that to the actual fullest it could have been the game changing thing to put them ahead. The whole pitch of "your car makes money for you while you don't need it" robo-taxis and all the other knock on changes and rental opportunities that would unlock. Too bad they hard committed to camera only sensing which is looking like a major mistake given how little headway they have against traditional car safety features.
If one takes a moment to think about the value of a private car participating in a public taxi fleet, the idea collapses completely. Public transit is difficult, so is a taxi fleet. A part is labour - drivers specifically - but equally large portions are maintenance, insurance and related things.
Even if Tesla developed robo taxis tomorrow, there are numerous legal, regulatory, liability and willingness hurdles to overcome.
There is also the issue of which markets robo taxis would address. Old-world cities tend to have good to excellent public transit. The value is largely in limited regions - north america being one.
True but that's still a huge market and if it were demonstrably safer than people driving you could work through the insurance and liability issues in fairly short order.
Also even European cities with great transport are often choked by cars and parking issues. London in particular seems to have issues with the volume of vehicles that could be at least partially helped by car share robo-taxis.
There were tons of potential issues but it still formed the ideological core propping up any semblance of rationality to Tesla's pre-crash stock price. IMO it's still way over valued but it's at least no longer larger than every other major car manufacturer combined.
>The whole pitch of "your car makes money for you while you don't need it" robo-taxis and all the other knock on changes and rental opportunities that would unlock.
Sounds miserable, I wouldn't want to get back to my car after work and find some passenger had ruined it in some way. Bodily fluids, smoking weed in it, leaving trash, the possibilities are endless!
> The whole pitch of "your car makes money for you while you don't need it" robo-taxis
If you can print cash with your Robotaxi, why would Tesla ever sell you one? Just build your army of Robotaxis and make your billions that way.