By: Gabby Zhou
The Automated Driving Industry
According to an Automated Driving Industry Trends Report recently published by Bishop Consulting, Chinese and U.S. robotaxis have operated for 60 million miles. Driverless cars or taxis are now the future of A.I. technology. Mr. Musk’s goal is for Tesla’s main A.I. related businesses will be to create driverless taxis, also known as robotaxis. Mr. Musk said last week on a conference call discussing the company’s 2nd-quarter results: “Tesla is very close to perfecting such vehicles and will easily secure realtoy approval to put them on roads.” Mr. Musk said that these vehicles will offer a completely different experience, acting as a lounge for passenngers.
Economic Impact
Many wonder about the economic economic impact this will have: “Mr. Musk has said the robotaxi service will catapult Tesla’s stock market valuation around $740 billion now, into the trillions of dollars.” (The New York Times, 2024) According to Tom Narayan, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, the entire robotaxi market may someday be worth $5 trillion. He also added that “regulators aren’t going to allow one company to have a monopoly.” According to RBC estimations, the economic potential of Tesla’s robotaxis has already accounted for over $400 billion of its current stock value.
Competition
Tesla’s robotics technology will face stiff competition, especially from “Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet, the parent company of Google; ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft; and Amazon’s self-driving business, Zoox.” (The New York Times, 2024) Other carmakers like General Motors are also pursuing autonomous driving, as well as Chinese tech companies like Baidu and BYD.
Resources Used
The New York Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/29/business/elon-musk-tesla-robotaxi.html
Forbes:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardbishop1/2024/07/27/60-million-miles-and-counting-robotaxis-shift-into-high-gear/
Clean Technica:
https://cleantechnica.com/2024/07/28/robotaxi-from-waymo-zeekr-makes-it-to-san-francisco/
Bloomberg:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-07-23/tesla-misses-profit-expectations-extending-weak-start-to-2024
Tesla Mag:
https://www.tesla-mag.com/en/elon-musks-vision-for-the-future-revolutionizing-travel-with-robotaxis/
X:
https://x.com/GailAlfarATX/status/1817655683342610824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1817655683342610824%7Ctwgr%5Ec0399b3121342fe92c8626f5d0e88d3dd1d1a8e6%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tesla-mag.com%2Fen%2Felon-musks-vision-for-the-future-revolutionizing-travel-with-robotaxis%2F