Imagine a taxi that can’t operate in the rain. That is what Tesla has delivered in Austin TX.
These riders learned that the hard way, but don’t have anything particularly negative to say about it… That’s the advantage of only making a Robotaxi service available to hand-picked Tesla influencers.
I totally agree.
Remember when the price of groceries came down because of all the self-checkouts? Like, are his taxis going to be significantly cheaper than other providers? If not, why would I use them?
I really think the investors who are like “Tesla shares are worth $450 each because of robotaxis” really haven’t thought this one through. A driverless taxi is only better for the Taxi company. The experience for the user is worse in every way. If you want to charge the same as a regular taxi, your service has to be better. Who is going to help me with my luggage? Uh oh, storm clouds. I guess I will WALK IN THE RAIN.
I know there are some real idiots out there, but let’s break down the characteristics of a Tesla robotaxi customer:
I’m no stock analyst, but I am confident in my $0.00 valuation of Tesla shares.
Right. I’m not against driverless taxis, but they are just another thing that does an already solved job. Maybe it will be a wee bit cheaper, maybe not, but at the end of the day, it’s not me, the user or the service, that these things are for. They are for the cab companies to make bigger profits, maybe pass some savings on to us (not likely, in fact I’ll bet a dollar they charge a premium).
I just don’t get why the hype cycle has captured everyone. Woo, a computer can drive a car, neat… I that’s all the reaction it needs.
Wait, they charge the same as Uber and all that?
They currently charge a flat rate of $4.20 per ride :|
Not joking. Is real. Will be replaced by a real number, they’ll probably ease their way up to Uber pricing to reinforce that they are the “cheap” option, and then jack up the price (just like Uber did)
Whatever they charge, you can assume it will be optimized to gain market control (not share) and once they have market control they will begin charging whatever the market will bear.
I gotta admit, under 5 bucks is a pretty good deal and definitely cheaper than i expected. i can’t imagine they’re profitable at that price, though.
That’s a placeholder, meaningless, price.
remember how cheap it was to have food delivered during the shutdown with DoorDash etc ?
I had that one taxi driver in Philadelphia who took me on a 40 minute tour of the city for a 6 minute hop from my hotel to the place I needed to be. Running red lights, making wild lane changes across traffic… he was an anomaly, but one you don’t quickly forget. Then there are the taxi drivers from SFO to downtown San Francisco doing 80-85 in their clapped out 680,000 mile Caprices. The fact that there aren’t crumpled yellow Caprices lining the sides of the expressway is small comfort as you bounce along on completely dysfunctional shock absorbers flying after every pothole - occasional sparks flying on the touchdowns. I’ve taken that ride a half dozen times across a span of 20 years, it’s always been like that for me.
Yeah, at least the Teslas are new (right now). I haven’t had the same experience with shoddy cabs, but i am in a different part of the world. I can see the appeal of being in a newer, cleaner vehicle.
there are people driving regular taxis with clean cars…also ubers/lifts.