[ad_1]
At the same time that Tesla CEO Elon Musk asked investors to re-approve his $56 billion pay package, the company also announced that it would launch its long-awaited Robotaxi self-driving car service on August 8. However, that launch never happened.
Instead, Tesla delayed the Robotaxi launch until October to build more prototypes. The vision for Robotaxis is that current Tesla owners can essentially lease self-driving cars to ride-hailing customers, with Musk claiming Tesla owners could make up to $30,000 a year doing so. In a LinkedIn video posted by Rosalie Nathans, whose profile says she is a senior online sales manager for Tesla used cars, she requested a Robotaxi on her phone and was able to adjust the car’s temperature, music, and pickup location. Everything can be delivered without anyone having to sit in the driver’s seat.
But Tesla’s efforts at Robotaxis may be in vain, at least Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said, saying he doubts the electric car giant can have enough taxis to meet peak demand.
“When you want a Tesla, it’s probably when passenger demand is peaking,” Khosrowshahi said in an interview on “The Logan Bartlett Show” podcast released Friday. “There are peaks and valleys in terms of supply and demand.”
Musk’s grand vision for the Robotaxi is based on the premise that Tesla owners will want to lease their vehicles when they’re not in use. That might be great for those looking to make a little extra cash from their Tesla sitting in their garage during the day, but the average Tesla owner is pretty wealthy.
In fact, the average Tesla owner earns about $150,000 a year or more, about twice the median household income in the U.S., according to a study by automotive digital marketing agency Hedges & Co. Musk’s ride-sharing program for Tesla.
“It’s not feasible,” Edwin Olson, CEO and co-founder of self-driving technology company May Mobility, told Fortune. “Individual car owners don’t want to ‘own’ their cars. Passengers are often harsh with cars, treat them roughly, make messes, slam doors, all because the car is not theirs. “This may prevent landowners from participating.” May Mobility insists its service is not a “robotaxi” but rather works with companies and governments to provide specific self-driving routes.
Khosrowshahi also isn’t sure Tesla owners would be willing to voluntarily rent out their cars.
“It’s also not clear to me that the average Tesla or any other car owner would want their car to be used by a complete stranger,” he said on the podcast.
However, Robotaxis also promises to add another ride-sharing option for consumers, but they will have to wait longer for their launch. There is also a theory that Tesla’s launch of Robotaxi in the spring was intended to “distract people from Tesla’s declining sales,” according to Bloomberg. If true, it worked. In the 11 weeks starting in April, Tesla’s market value increased by $386 billion, according to Bloomberg.
Furthermore, Khosrowshahi said in the podcast that he also believes Robotaxis is not ready because maintaining a ride-sharing fleet is a “very different business” than selling cars. In other words, building $50,000 of hardware to make self-driving work is completely different from processing more than 30 million transactions a day. Khosrowshahi said that unlike Uber, Tesla is not equipped to handle the customer service aspects of running a ride-sharing company.
Khosrowshahi said on the podcast that there can be a lot of problems with ridesharing, such as people wanting to pay cash, accidents happening, and people getting sick or losing things.
“We had to learn how to build a system where everything worked for the riders and the drivers,” Khosrowshahi said. “It took us 15 years. It cost us tens of billions of dollars.”
However, Khosrowshahi sees potential in Robotaxis and doesn’t see it as a “zero-sum game.” In fact, he said in the podcast that he “hopes Tesla could be one of[our partners]one day.”
Olson also thinks the robotaxi idea would work better if Tesla dedicated a fleet of self-driving cars to the platform rather than relying on individual owners. Fleets could be optimized for a specific purpose, offer streamlined service and be easier to manage, he said.
“This approach may result in a better service for consumers than a ‘random Tesla’ would,” Olson said.
[ad_2]
Source link
