Tesla’s reveal of a robotaxi designed as a low-slung, two-seater, sporty coupe - quite the opposite of a typical taxi with room for several passengers and luggage - flummoxed investors and analysts.
But in true Musk style, he skipped over expectations of how a two-seater robotaxi would serve the needs of families headed to a restaurant or to the airport, or if he expected these to appeal only to a niche clientele.
Investors jeered the design and the lack of financial detail, with Tesla stocks tumbling 9% on Wall Street on Friday.
“When you think of a cab, you think of something that’s going to carry more than two people,” said Jonathan Elfalan, vehicle testing director for the automotive website Edmunds.com. “Making this a two-seat-only car is very perplexing.”
It looks like they were working on the new roadster and Elmo told them they were switching to a driverless cab.
If it were a sports car it would probably sell really well because it’s got the doors that open like this
Im gonna start calling him Elmo from now on haha.
On a related note…
Full Self Driving coming next year? Or the year after that? Or after that?
Musk and “FSD is coming next year” is like Trump and “I only want to be dictator for a day”.
More like his healthcare plan. Or his infrastructure plan
Details will be shared in two weeks!
There are concepts of FSD.
In two years presumably. It’s been two years away since 2015.
Yes. But also: No. Mostly no.
What was his first prediction on that like 2015?
We’ll have FSD as soon as we get those flying cars with AGI I’ve been told are a few years away my entire life.
Space colonies too.
There are self driving waymo taxis in San Francisco, it is only a fiction for Musk
Those also use a combination of many different sensors to see the road around them, while Tesla stubbornly refuses to use anything except vision because that’s how humans do it. Nevermind that even with our best AI models, we’ve never even approximated how the human brain works.
Yes, good reasons why his version will never come to market - which he is already late to. His lunch has been eaten, so to speak.
Along with what @Bassman1805 says, San Francisco has a small footprint and most of it is laid out in grids, making navigation easier.
Plus, it’s not a problem-free implementation by any means.
On top of that, it’s way too easy to make them stop working. Not too easy for passengers, too easy for everyone else.
https://www.npr.org/2023/08/26/1195695051/driverless-cars-san-francisco-waymo-cruise
Unlike the other things you mentioned, full self driving taxis do exist, they are being rolled out in actual markets with customers, and despite the problems you mentioned they are safer than human drivers and overall have improved my life as a pedestrian (sorry, anecdote). It may not be the perfect generalized scifi version you have in your head that makes you compare it with flying cars or AGI, but it is here.
And, what - Musk’s version won’t have to overcome those problems?
He’s years behind the competition in his own timeline, and as all the other commenters have pointed out he never even delivers according to that timeline.
Meanwhile he’s announced a version of something that that already exists and is telling his customers and shareholders that in his best case scenario, he will be 3 years late to market - and it is a fast moving market, he falls further behind with every month that passes.
Is the “safer the human drivers” part also an anecdote? I’d like to see the evidence. As far as I know, that’s not actually public information. I’d like to know if it includes things like impeding emergency vehicles, or the situation in one of the articles above where the taxi kept going toward the fire hoses while the fire department was trying to put out a fire.
It’s part anecdote, in that I personally feel safer when I see a waymo coming than a human driver; but they also are required to report to government organizations as part of their operating agreement with the county/state. From my understanding, waymo’s collisions-per-mile are a fraction of human drivers. Here’s some random article I found if it helps https://www.forbes.com/sites/bradtempleton/2024/09/05/waymos-new-safety-data-is-impressive-and-teaches-a-lesson/. But I’m really just reporting my experience here from the ground.
As a counterexample, Cruise was recently suspended by SF and fined by NHTSA for trying to avoid reporting their traffic incidents.
As for the rest, you’ve got a handful of isolated incidents you’re just-asking-questions about when there are incidents every single day of human drivers doing worse, with provable loss of life.
If you don’t think the tech is up to snuff, take it up with NHTSA who clearly disagrees.
But all of this is a tangent - none of this negates the fact that self driving exists and I can hop in one just as quick as I can get an uber.
We’ll have to keep waiting for the space colonies I guess.
Always.
The real problem that he failed to show any progress on self-driving. Self-driving has been 2 years away for the past 6 years and that’s the only real thing that will pull Tesla out of a downward spiral. Tesla stock is stupidly overpriced and competitors are catching up.
With nothing but empty promises, people are starting to realize that the emperor has no clothes. And really, who wants to see Musk naked? …that’s a bag nobody wants to be left holding.
It’s been 1 year away every year, not 2
Waymo did it well when I was in Tempe, so it already exists. Tesla just wasn’t putting quality hardware into it. The Jaguars were nice
I’ll take the bus, thanks. At least I will arrive alive at my destination.
But think of the opportunity cost here, you’d be wasting a chance to run over a child or a poor person!
I’m only taking this chance if I know elon will be in the road on my route at some point. Someone’s gonna get the X!
It may only have 2 seats, but didn’t they notice the tires are painted gold. That’s an awesome design decision right there! /s
The 2 seats are probably meant to keep the death toll low. 😋But if they thought the robotaxi was weird, that was nothing compared to the robovan. Almost no clearance and almost no windows, and then Musk exclaimed: Yes! We are gonna build it like that! It’s siiick.
neither robo- taxi or van are likely to be moneymakers. They’ll be a sinkhole of development cost, that will never come to market.
But more are probably finally catching on, with an event causing the stock to drop 9%.
It’s kind of hilarious that Enron Musks attempt to pump the stock failed so bad. 😋deleted by creator
I can’t wait for one of these to pull up with a puddle of vomit on the seat
Clown man
In all fairness the critics simply have to get high on drugs to see the car as it was meant to be viewed.
It seems selfish they are not
How often do you think Elon drives while blasted out of his mind on ketamine? Because I bet it’s a nonzero number.
I’m sure he’s imagining commuter clients using it to go to work every day on a subscription.
Or dragging a pedestrian?
I feel like you’re refrenceing some thing I don’t know.
I also don’t see how it could pertain to a self driving cab business model.
Could you elaborate?
A Cruise self-driving vehicle dragged a pedestrian. They were later fined 1.5M for it by NHTSA, and paid the victim something like 8M
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/30/24258445/cruise-nhtsa-fine-robotaxi-pedestrian-drag
I remember that now. Thank you.
And surprisingly, it has even less to do with Tesla’s robot taxi business model than I imagined.
I agree, unfortunately it seems common around for people to conflate all self-driving together
Interesting how this dumb thing has overshadowed SpaceX performing a chopstick landing for Starship. That’s a major achievement that suggests SpaceX will meet its goals for Starship. If Elon had a lick of sense, he’d want that to be the top headline on all the feeds.
Instead, it’s about this stupid taxi. If anyone thought Elon was still good at self promotion, this should kill it.
Oh, and he spent his after launch speech hawking a cryptocurrency scheme. So that’s great. Anybody still want to go to Mars with this guy?
I have a sneaking suspicion that the Robotaxi isn’t ready and instead we just got a look at the Tesla Model 2.
It would make more sense as others mentioned for a robotaxi to have more room for seating and cargo. Even face to face seating.
Full height cargo space like a SUV or crossover (station wagon) body would maximize cargo space for quick cargo loading and unloading.
He’s been at the point for some time where he believes being “contrarian” is the same as being “smart”.
Absolutely. The way he talks too, he uses this flowery, overly technical language you usually only use when talking to engineers or technical people. It’s purely an attempt to confuse and sound smart, as any engineer worth their salt will tailor their language to their audience.
Yes, so much so that engineers receive training on how and when to use jargon vs lay people terms. Like multiple classes go over this
That’s because Musk is a dunce.
Seems like the minivan is really the right thing. Can share with multiple folks or have a significant amount of luggage for the airport or such. Easier to serve the handicapped.
This unveiling is stupid for, like… uncountable reasons. But are people really regularly riding in cabs that fit more than two people comfortably? Unless I specifically request a bigger vehicle from a cab service, a car with a backseat is usually what I get.
I usually get the option of up to 4 people unless requested. You start with the two ends of the backseat, then person 3 gets passenger seat, and person 4 makes you really hope there’s someone short and skinny in your group
I guess I’m thinking about an actual cab, like the type you flag down on the street, which is what these are also supposed to do (although since it didn’t stop for the investors trying to flag it down, yet another tesla failure).
If you try to ride in the front passenger seat of a yellow cab in NYC, you’ll be lucky if you’re only yelled at for trying that.
I typically use a taxi/Uber on my way to an airport. I at least need room for my suitcase and laptop bag
Yeah, I think that is why the design choice, I think it has a larger trunk. Idk though
What a fucking moron. Dude is so goddamn stupid that every decision he makes is the wrong one. And yet people keep defending him…
Didn’t his mom say Leon was developmentally challenged in a twit post?
So darkly dark… Like mother like son
