Analysts criticise lack of detail about the ‘robotaxi’ showcased by CEO Elon Musk
Tesla shares fell nearly 9% on Friday, wiping about $60bn (£45bn) from the company’s value, after the long-awaited unveiling of its so-called robotaxi failed to excite investors.
Shares in the electric carmaker tumbled to $217 at market close following an event in Hollywood, where the chief executive, Elon Musk, revealed a much-hyped driverless vehicle. The stock price is down roughly 12% year-to-date.
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However, analysts said the event was short on detail and also expressed disappointment over a lack of specifics about other Tesla projects. Musk has a history of making grand projections about upcoming products and failing to follow through in the timeframe he has set, or at all.
What problems do autonomous taxies solve that are worth this investment of possibly decades?
Edit: grammar
They should outcompete Uber and the others. They should provide very low cost point to point transport
I was making a point that the overall goal is for people to get from point A to point B. There are known solutions for that (trains, busses), investing millions into this just to replace taxis/Uber sounds ridiculous to me. This seems to me just an investment to promote the car centric mentality for solving such problems
Yeah public transport is ideal for most transport cases and should be funded by cities to the level to allow it to provide that
But still some cases call for individual transport and my preference on that is taxis over Uber and the like as taxis have a duty to pick up anyone who can pay which the newer companies don’t
I hope that self driving taxis include accessible ones, I expect there will still need to be a class of staffed cars to help people who need assistance - eg those who can’t lift their bag into our out of the vehicle, those who need assistance to put on a seat belt
Do you find autonomous cars at a clear advantage in those cases where you think cars are still preferred?
Really. Give me reliable public transportation instead.
the feds would have to start issueing grants for light rail like they do with roads for that to happen. Otherwise cities will always default to a free road over a paid train system
The dream of being the first to do it and corner the market for more of that sweet growth.
I just wish it went into autonomous trains like France did with Paris Line 14
none. But they would have to be electric so that they don’t lose fuel economy as 3x the number of cars on the road will 100% create traffic jams.
And even then the amount of energy wasted on traveling empty from drop offs to pickups would probably be collossal. Not to speak of the infrastructure we don’t have to keep these charged