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.”
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
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.
I can’t wait for one of these to pull up with a puddle of vomit on the seat
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
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
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
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.
What a fucking moron. Dude is so goddamn stupid that every decision he makes is the wrong one. And yet people keep defending him…
Investors jeered the design and the lack of financial detail, with Tesla stocks tumbling 9% on Wall Street on Friday.
I didn’t realize this stupid vehicle was a two-seater. What a dumbass move.
When investors attempted to hail the cab it ignored them according to another post I saw yesterday.
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.
Stop supporting Elon
Well they had to save room for all the safety features that are required for them to be remotely driven from North Korea.
To me it makes sense because without the driver, there’s less need to maximize passengers per vehicle. Plus the added weight for the extra, often unused seats is a bigger problem for EVs because of the need to minimize weight (which then requires more heavy batteries). Generally the vast majority of taxi trips are one or two people, so you don’t wanna make them any bigger than necessary. And if there’s 4 people, they can just take 2.
The problem isn’t the number of seats, it’s that there’s no plan for them to become actually self-driving.
EVs really don’t have to minimize weight nearly as much as ICE cars. Regen is really powerful with a large battery and aerodynamics and rolling resistance is king at speed. And larger and heavier batteries are cheaper too.
two-seater, sporty coupe - quite the opposite of a typical taxi with room for several passengers and luggage - flummoxed investors and analysts.
The majority of rides are 1 or 2 people.
For when there’s more than 1 or 2 people… they have the model 3, and Y.
It’s not rocket science people.
But his other company did just catch a rocket between two giant chopsticks.
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.
